Just The Way You Are
by lolitarun
Summary: Blaine's been keeping a secret from everyone in his life.  But he can't keep it from Kurt forever.
1. Returning Visions

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: Alright, alright… I KNOW I shouldn't be starting a new story. But exams are over in a week, and I intend to spend a LOT of time wrapping up some of my older stories as soon as school is out. Plus I needed to get this up before "Born This Way" – fair warning though, I will have SPOILERS in this story as I get them. So if you don't like, DO NOT READ until after the episode airs!**

"So do you want to go get some coffee after rehearsal?"

Blaine didn't hear Kurt's question at first. The rushing sound in his ears and the lightheaded feeling were distracting, and Blaine was having a hard time focusing on simply making it down the stairs leading into the Warblers' common room without falling. Blaine knew this was bad; this was the first time Blaine had felt this way since his first week at Dalton, and that hadn't ended well.

"Blaine?" It was Kurt's hand on his arm as they reached the bottom of the stairs that caught his attention. "Blaine, are you okay?"

Blaine couldn't be sure if he answered Kurt's question, because he was no longer standing there with the younger boy.

Blaine watched from the audience as Kurt danced on a familiar stage. But the boy wasn't performing as a Warbler, and something told Blaine that Kurt wasn't a warbler any more. But what struck Blaine the most about the vision was how _happy_ Kurt looked singing and dancing with his old glee club. Blaine couldn't help his smirk at the white tee shirt his boyfriend wore, black letters proclaiming that Kurt "likes boys."

The next thing Blaine knew was that he was on the ground, lying on his side with a balled up blazer under his head. Every muscle in his body ached and he was exhausted, wanting nothing more than to close his eyes again and fall asleep. But there were people talking and he knew that he really didn't need to fall asleep on the floor of the rehearsal room. "Wha…?"

"It's okay… just relax." Blaine recognized Kurt's voice and he tried to turn towards the younger boy's voice. "You're okay now." Blaine slowly started to sit up, aided by multiple pairs of hands. He wasn't completely aware of what was going on around him; all Blaine really knew was that Kurt was there with him, carefully holding onto Blaine so that he didn't fall over.

"The paramedics are here… how's he doing?" Blaine turned towards Wes, noting the concerned look on his friend's face.

"I think he's okay now… what the hell was that?"

"He had a seizure." Blaine blinked a few times, his brain slowly processing what Wes had said. "It's the first one since his freshman year. He thought they were under control…"

"Wait… he's epileptic?" Blaine wanted to say something, but he couldn't get his mouth and brain to connect. "Since when?"

"I don't know… he just said he'd had seizures for as long as he could remember. He's been on the same medicine for years…" Blaine closed his eyes and leaned over to rest his head against Kurt's shoulder because he was just too tired to keep himself upright without the younger boy's help.

"What's his name?" Blaine opened his eyes at the unfamiliar voice, trying his best to make his mouth work so that he could protest that he didn't need to see a doctor.

"Blaine Anderson," Wes replied. "He has temporal lobe epilepsy, but this his first seizure in more than two years. It was almost five minutes long, which is why we called."

"Do you know if he took his medicine today?"

"Not yet. He normally takes it right before dinner at six… I don't know if he took it yesterday or not." Blaine nodded slowly, attempting to answer the man's question.

"Did he hit his head?"

"Not as far as I know." For once, Blaine was glad that Wes knew and understood so much about his condition because it made this part so much easier. Even once he was aware of what was going on, Blaine had a hard time talking for a while after a seizure. It was just easier to have someone there who knew what was going on and could explain everything if necessary.

"Okay… Blaine, we're going to take you to the hospital."

"N-no…" Blaine finally managed to get his mouth to work. "I just… just need sleep."

"Blaine, you just experienced a breakthrough seizure and I don't have any explanation as to why," the paramedic replied. "You need to see a doctor, have some tests run…"

"I have rehearsal…"

"You're excused, Blaine… just go, let a doctor take a look at you," Wes replied. Blaine managed to find one of Kurt's hands and he squeezed it gently, closing his eyes again. He was out of excuses, and he wasn't thinking straight enough to come up with something else. He finally nodded, letting Kurt and the paramedic help him to his feet and lead him over to the stretcher.

By the time Blaine woke up, he was already in a hospital bed with padded sides, an IV in his arm. "You said he's been under a lot of stress lately… you know that can cause seizures. I'm still convinced that was at least a contributing factor last time he ended up in here."

"So you don't think we need to adjust his medication?"

"Not right away. If he has another seizure once he's had a chance to relax and get some rest, then we'll talk about it." Blaine opened his eyes, turning towards the sound of his father's voice. Neither of the men in the room were paying any attention to him as they spoke.

"How soon will I be able to take him home?" Blaine's father asked.

"As long as he doesn't have any more seizures tonight, I'd be willing to let him go some time tomorrow. But no school for the rest of the week, and he shouldn't be left alone for a while."

"I'll see what I can do about rearranging my schedule for the next few weeks, and I'll try to get his aunt to come in from Philadelphia for a few days."

"Aunt Mel's in Paris until the end of the week," Blaine commented, finally getting their attention.

"Then we'll figure something else out. How are you feeling?" Blaine sighed, closing his eyes.

"Like I had a seizure…" Blaine let his voice trail off. "How long have I been here?"

"About four hours. I just made some of your friends go home, but Wes and Kurt are still here, if you're feeling up to seeing them." Blaine bit down on his bottom lip. He knew that he needed to talk to Kurt; they had always been honest with one another, but Blaine wasn't sure that it would be considered honest to completely ignore something so huge.

"Yeah, okay. I just… can I talk to Kurt alone for a little while? I… I sort of owe him an explanation." Blaine watched as his father nodded, standing up.

Blaine closed his eyes again once his father was gone. He was still exhausted, not to mention the fact that pretty much every muscle in his body was sore from the convulsions. Seizures were exhausting, but Blaine knew he needed to clear things up with Kurt.

"Why didn't you tell me?" a soft voice asked. Blaine opened his eyes, reaching out for Kurt's hand before he answered. He was thankful that the younger boy was willing to allow him at least that much comfort, no matter how mad the younger boy might be at him.

"I was afraid… not many people knew. Most people don't understand…"

"What is there to not understand? You're…"

"Do not say I'm sick, Kurt. I'm not… I just…"

"You have epilepsy. Wes told me about it on the way over here," Kurt replied. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," Blaine admitted. "Until today, epilepsy was just one of the reasons I had to choke down a couple of pills every day. I haven't had a seizure since freshman year, I thought I had them under control." He gently squeezed Kurt's hand and looked up at the younger boy. Blaine was relieved to see that the look on Kurt's face seemed to be one of concern rather than one of anger. "I wasn't keeping it from you on purpose, Kurt. I just wasn't thinking about it."

Blaine moved over to one side of his bed, patting the mattress in the hopes that Kurt would put down the side rail and sit next to him. "I don't think I'm supposed to…" Blaine smiled slightly.

"You won't hurt anything by sitting on my bed," Blaine replied. "I just want you close to me right now." He smiled as Kurt finally got the hint and moved the lower rail away and climbed into the bed. Blaine closed his eyes and curled into the younger boy as Kurt put an arm around his shoulders, turning so that he could rest his head on the younger boy's collarbone.

"What does it feel like? Does it hurt?"

"What?" Blaine asked.

"A seizure. Is it painful?" Blaine shook his head.

"I don't feel anything… it usually starts with an aura, and then I don't remember anything else until it's over." Blaine glanced up at Kurt and realized that he had no idea what Blaine was talking about. "An aura… it's different for everyone, but I usually just feel kind of dizzy and lightheaded. A lot of times I hear sort of a rushing noise…"

"Which is why you didn't hear my question earlier."

"I was a little too distracted. Technically that's a simple partial seizure. It almost always progresses into a complex partial seizure – that means I'm not technically conscious. I don't remember anything after we got through the doors into the rehearsal room."

"You don't remember walking to the couch?"

"I can't remember anything else until I woke up on the floor," Blaine replied. "I sleep a lot for a day or two after a seizure. When I first wake up, I can't make my mouth and my brain function together and nothing makes sense for a while."

"So do you end up in the ER every time you have a seizure?"

"Only because my seizures are usually under control. When I was little, before they got the dosages right for my medication, I only ended up in the hospital if I hurt myself or if the seizures wouldn't stop on their own." Blaine looked up at Kurt again and realized that the younger boy looked incredibly freaked out by that prospect. "It happened once… I was seven, and things were crazy at home and I didn't take my medication for a couple of days beforehand."

Blaine jumped as he felt something vibrating against his hip. "Sorry… my cell." Blaine moved away slightly so that Kurt could answer the phone call. "Oh God… it's my dad. I forgot to call him this afternoon…" Blaine let go of the younger boy, who quickly moved away as he answered the call. "I'm sorry, Dad… I know, I meant to call but things were crazy… I'm with Blaine and his dad right now… Blaine had a seizure during rehearsal." Blaine closed his eyes as Kurt spoke for a few moments. "I'm just going to stay here tonight, if that's okay… I have an extra uniform, and Wes already offered to let me sleep on the couch in his dorm room… It's just one night, Dad."

Blaine didn't realize that he had fallen asleep listening to Kurt's phone conversation until he felt the bed shift again as the younger boy put the rail back up. He opened his eyes, holding a hand out to Kurt again. "I'm going to go… let you sleep. I'll see you tomorrow after school."

"You don't have to leave…"

"You need to get some rest. And I want to go to the library before it closes."

"You're not going to go research epilepsy or something like that, are you?" Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow. "Wes knows pretty much everything there is to know… I'm sure he'd love to give you a lecture on anything and everything you might ever want to know." Blaine dropped his hand onto the bed as Kurt walked over to the other side of the bed and leaned over to press a kiss on Blaine's forehead.

"I'll come see you tomorrow. You should get some rest." Kurt started to turn away, but Blaine reached out and took the younger boy's wrist, pulling him back.

"Please don't leave… not without a kiss." It only took a moment for the younger boy to lean down and press his soft lips against Blaine's, but it was more than enough for Blaine. All he wanted was to know that the younger boy wasn't pissed off at him.


	2. Visions of the Past

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: Yes, I did have two chapters of this written. Yes, there should be one more prior to Tuesday's episode, provided I get it written. It will be uploaded as soon as I can get it finished.**

"No caffeine, no stress, and lots of sleep over the next few days. As long as everything is still going all right he can go back to classes on Monday. But I don't want him staying in the dorms just yet. And no driving until further notice."

"Wait… no coffee?" Blaine asked.

"Decaf only, at least for now. Caffeine is a trigger in some cases…" the doctor replied. Blaine nodded; the whole purpose of coffee was the caffeine, but at least he wouldn't have to completely give up his coffee dates with Kurt. Not yet, anyways. "As soon as the paperwork is finished, you're free to go home. Just remember to take it easy."

Blaine fidgeted in the bed, waiting for his father to finish signing everything. He was ready to get out; Blaine hated being stuck in bed and the nurses at the hospital seemed to be terrified of letting him get up because they were afraid he would have another seizure and hurt himself. Blaine couldn't help playing with his phone, unlocking the screen and checking to see if he had missed anything. Then he tapped the screen to bring up the screen that would let him send a new text message to his boyfriend.

_So no caffeine for now. But they're letting me out. Can you come over this afternoon?_

"Ready to go?" Blaine glanced up at the sound of his father's voice, slipping his phone into the pocket of his uniform pants.

Blaine's least favorite part about getting out of the hospital was that they wouldn't let him go without a wheelchair. It was hospital policy, of course, but Blaine hated it because he didn't really _need_ a wheelchair. Usually he got up as soon as the nurse would let him.

"Do you want to stop and pick something up for lunch, or would you rather just go home?" Blaine's father asked once they were finally in the car. Blaine just shrugged in response. He was hungry, but at the same time he was exhausted and really just wanted to go home and sleep so that he would be awake if Kurt came over later. "Maybe have some Chinese delivered from Full Moon?"

"Sure, Dad." Blaine pulled his phone out of his pocket as it buzzed, indicating that he had a text from Kurt.

_I'll bring our usual coffee to you – decaf, of course. But I can't stay long. I think I'm grounded for not going home last night._

Blaine bit down on his bottom lip for a moment before he responded.

_I'm sorry… hope it isn't too bad._

"Who are you texting?"

"Kurt. He said he would stop by on the way home this afternoon," Blaine replied, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

"Just remember that you need to rest. He doesn't need to hang around for too long."

"He can't really stay long… he thinks he might be in trouble for not going home last night." Blaine reached into his pocket as he felt his phone vibrating again.

_Dad's not big on yelling. But be prepared to explain yourself to him next time you go to Lima._

Blaine did his best to stifle his groan over that one. He hadn't thought about the fact that Burt would want to know what was going on. Blaine wasn't really sure he wanted to go through giving that explanation.

"For the record, if you ever stayed out like that without calling me first, you would be grounded. You're lucky I didn't ground you for that stunt last semester when you skipped school to help Kurt."

"You didn't actually know about that until Kurt accidentally told you," Blaine reminded him, slipping his phone back into his pocket. "Besides, I told you there were special circumstances there."

That got Blaine thinking about what had happened with Dave Karofsky again. Blaine wanted the vision he'd seen during his seizure to be wrong, but he doubted it would be. His visions had always come true in the past. He'd spent more than a week in the hospital in September of 2001 because of his first and only experience with status epilepticus, and both of those visions had come true. First he'd seen the Twin Towers collapsing just under 24 hours before the terrorists had actually gotten onto the four planes. The next thing Blaine had seen was his mother leaving their home, her head covered with a scarf to disguise the loss of her hair from chemo, being shot by someone who accused her of being a terrorist.

Blaine had woken up screaming for his mother, but by the time he'd come around it had been too late. He'd been sedated for more than 48 hours, just long enough to miss the opportunity to tell his mother goodbye before she passed away.

"You okay?" Blaine reached up and wiped away a tear, shaking his head.

"I'm just tired."

"You're thinking about your mom again, aren't you?"

"She wouldn't have left the house if I hadn't been in the hospital. She would have stayed in bed that day…"

"You don't know that, Blaine." Blaine shook his head and closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against the cool glass of the window. "You can't help it when you have a seizure."

"I wouldn't have had a seizure if I'd taken my medication."

"And that was our fault, not yours. You were seven. You couldn't have taken those pills without our help." Blaine glanced down as he felt his father's hand on his knee. "I wish you would stop blaming yourself. That was almost ten years ago."

Blaine reached up again, wiping away a few more tears. "You don't need to get so worked up about it, Blaine. You can't change what happened any more than you can stop yourself from having seizures. And if you don't calm down, you're going to have another one." Blaine closed his eyes, trying his best to think of something else. But the only other thing that came to mind wasn't much better.

Blaine spent most of what was left of their ride home worrying about the prospect of Kurt going back to McKinley. He'd had two encounters of his own with Karofsky, and Blaine wasn't sure that he liked the idea of his boyfriend being sent back into that mess. He couldn't be sure that there would be anyone there to stop the football player from hurting Kurt if he really wanted to.

The car was so quiet, Blaine was nearly asleep again by the time the car stopped. He let his father silently lead him into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom, Blaine's head resting against his father's shoulder because he was too tired to hold it up on his own. By the time Blaine woke up again fully, he was tucked in his bed wearing his pajamas. Blaine reached up and rubbed at his eyes, pushing back the covers and getting up to go downstairs. He was hungry, especially given the fact that he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and it was almost time for Kurt to be getting to his house because school was out.

The doorbell rang just about the time Blaine got into the kitchen to find something to eat, meaning he had to abandon his plan to find something to eat in order to let Kurt into the house.

"Sorry… the line at the coffee shop was ridiculous," Kurt apologized, handing over a coffee cup almost immediately. Blaine couldn't help but smile.

"It's alright. I just woke up a couple of minutes ago… do you want something to eat?" Blaine asked, taking the cup. "Decaf, right?"

"Of course. I wouldn't go against doctor's orders." Blaine moved in and wrapped Kurt in a hug for a moment before he pressed a quick kiss on the boy's lips.

"Thank you. Food?"

"I'll pass, but I don't mind sitting with you while you eat." Blaine took Kurt's hand, leading the younger boy back towards the kitchen. The room was pretty much spotless. "Does your dad even use this room? It's almost sterile looking…"

"My dad doesn't cook. He has a housekeeper who comes in and cooks a few nights a week, but she's off all week," Blaine replied, opening the door of the refrigerator and digging through the various takeout containers. He finally found one with noodles, which he put out on the counter before he started looking through the other boxes to find something appetizing.

"You're eating leftover Chinese food for dinner?"

"It's that or leftover Thai of questionable origin," Blaine replied. He heard Kurt sigh.

"Oh my God… put that away. Please tell me there's some real food in this house." Blaine raised an eyebrow as Kurt nudged him out of the way so that the younger boy could investigate the contents of the fridge.

"I haven't been here in two weeks… I have no clue what's in the fridge. Or the cabinets."

Blaine sat down on one of the bar stools, watching Kurt as he rummaged through the cabinets. "Okay… we need to go to the grocery store. This is ridiculous."

"I don't think my dad is going to let me out of the house tonight, Kurt. Seriously, I can just eat the leftover Chinese tonight."

"You're supposed to eat healthy foods." Blaine rolled his eyes, knowing exactly where Kurt had gotten his information.

"Oh my Gaga… you seriously went to the library last night, didn't you?"

"You're also not supposed to drink alcohol, for the record. Which means what happened at Rachel's house can't ever happen again," Kurt replied.

"Yeah… I wasn't really thinking that night. I think I forgot my meds that night, too…" Blaine stood up and walked over to the cabinet next to the sink, opening it and pulling out a bottle full of little white pills. He took one quickly, pulling out a glass and filling it with water to wash down the medication. Kurt was still rummaging around, occasionally pulling out something he determined to be acceptable. "Seriously, Kurt… I just want food. It isn't going to kill me to eat crap one night. You've seen what I eat at school."

Blaine watched as Kurt finally gave in and pulled the takeout containers out again and started putting together a plate.

"I can do that myself, you know."

"I'm at least going to make sure you eat something semi-decent, even if it does have to be Chinese food," Kurt replied. Blaine smiled slightly, standing up and moving to wrap his arms around his boyfriend's waist as he leaned his chin against Kurt's shoulder. Blaine was actually pretty happy, but he knew that there was something he needed to talk to Kurt about.

"Kurt… are you happy at Dalton?" Blaine saw the boy's hands still for a moment before Kurt continued working.

"What makes you ask that?"

"The look on your face… the night we were at McKinley. When you talk about Mercedes and Rachel and your old glee club. I know you really miss them."

"I do miss them. But I have friends at Dalton now, too. And I have you."

"But is it enough?"

"Why are you asking about that, Blaine?" Of course he couldn't tell the truth; Kurt would think he was crazy if Blaine ever told him about the visions during his seizures.

"Because I'm afraid that one of these days you're going to realize you don't belong at Dalton and leave me." It was true; Blaine had been worried about that possibility ever since they had gone to the concert New Directions had held as a fundraiser.

"If I decided to leave Dalton, you would be the first to know. And I would still drive over every chance I got to see you. We'd still do afternoon coffee dates whenever we could."

"You've actually thought about this…" Blaine began. He felt Kurt sigh underneath him.

"Yeah, I have." It was whispered, so low Blaine almost didn't hear it.

"I'm not going to be mad. You know that, right? I'd worry about you, but I want you to be happy."

"We really don't have to talk about this now. You need to eat," Kurt replied. Blaine let go of him, pulling away as Kurt walked over to the microwave. Blaine immediately busied himself with putting away the takeout containers Kurt had gotten his food from. He knew better than to push it; Kurt wasn't ready to talk about it, and Blaine wasn't going to get anywhere with the boy by trying to get him to talk.

Blaine walked over to Kurt, smiling slightly at the boy. "Hey… I love you, okay? No matter what."


	3. Saying Goodbye

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: So this chapter was a lot faster to write, mostly because for the last half a large chunk of it was "written" for me by the producers of Glee. Yeah, I definitely watched that video a half dozen times to write out everything that happened, but it was so worth it. Oh, and obviously "Somewhere Only We Know" belongs to Keane, although the version in this is as performed by Darren Criss, the Tufts Beelzebubs (they voice the Warblers, FYI), and the rest of the Glee cast.**

Being back at school after a few days at home was strange for Blaine; on Monday morning it seemed as though everyone at Dalton had heard about his epilepsy, and many of his classmates seemed to be afraid of him because of it.

"It's not contagious… I promise," Blaine joked, not bothering to look up from his math textbook when he realized he was being watched from a few tables away during his free period. One of the freshmen from the other table finally spoke up.

"You aren't going to like… have another seizure, are you?"

"I don't know. Probably not." Blaine went back to his math homework; he was trying to get caught up, but it wasn't easy. Dalton wasn't easy academically, and even though Blaine was intelligent it was still easy enough for him to fall behind when he missed classes.

"You look like you could use a break." Blaine glanced up, smiling at Wes as the senior sat down next to him. "How's catching up going?"

"Slowly. Dr. Carlson thinks all the stress I was under caused the last seizure, so I'm supposed to take it easy and try not to stress out so much about schoolwork," Blaine replied. "He doesn't have a clue about Dalton."

"Let me know if you need any help… especially with calculus. You know I'm a math whiz."

"Only because you never let me forget it," Blaine replied with a smirk. He looked back down at his book and continued working on the problem he'd started just before he'd been distracted by the freshmen. Math was Blaine's worst subject, so he had to concentrate to get through a calculus assignment. The good news was that once he finished this calculus class, he was done with math until he got to college.

"Blaine… can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?" Blaine glanced up at Kurt, surprised to see his boyfriend. They didn't have the same free period, so the fact that Kurt was standing in front of him was significant. Even more significant was the fact that the younger boy wasn't wearing his uniform. Blaine felt his heart drop as he stood up, following the younger boy out of the common room and into the hallway. This could only mean one thing, and even though Blaine had known about it in advance he still wasn't completely prepared to deal with that.

"Do you remember what you asked me about last week? In your kitchen?" Blaine nodded as Kurt held his hands.

"You made a decision."

"I'm going back to McKinley. My dad's signing the paperwork right now." Blaine nodded, fighting the tears that threatened to fall. "I love you, and I loved the time I spent here. But this isn't home…" Blaine nodded.

"I know." Blaine leaned in and pressed a soft kiss against Kurt's cheek. "I'm going to miss you…" Blaine pressed another kiss, this time against Kurt's lips. "I'm going to miss getting to do this between classes. I'm going to miss our coffee dates. But if this is what you need to do, then I want you to do it." Blaine couldn't help himself as he pulled Kurt closer, wrapping his arms around the younger boy. He wanted to hold onto Kurt forever, to keep him there permanently. But Blaine knew that it wasn't an option.

Blaine and Kurt stood there for a moment embracing one another before Kurt pulled away. "I should go. My dad's waiting for me." Blaine just nodded, leaning in and pressing another kiss against Kurt's lips. "I'll call you tonight. And I'll come visit you every weekend until you can drive again." Blaine nodded.

"I love you, Kurt."

"I love you, too." Blaine stood there, watching as Kurt walked away. After a moment he turned and walked back into the common room, taking his old seat next to Wes.

"Kurt's going back to McKinley." Blaine kept his eyes trained on his textbook, not trusting himself to look away from it because he was pretty sure that he might cry if he actually looked anywhere else.

"You okay with that?" Wes asked. Blaine bit down on his bottom lip for a moment.

"It's Kurt's decision to make, not mine. I just have to accept it," Blaine replied. He sat there for a moment, thinking about the idea that had just come to him. "Wes, do you think the guys would be willing to help me with something?"

* * *

><p>Blaine was nervous. More nervous than he had been prior to the so-called "Gap attack" or any competition he had ever performed in. But he had to do this. This was for Kurt, and he'd already gotten all of the other Warblers involved in helping him with this project. He couldn't back out now.<p>

"Are you ready?" David's hand touched Blaine's shoulder as he asked the question.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Blaine had gotten lucky; when they'd scoped out the area a few minutes before the bell rang, it had already been set up with musical instruments for some unknown reason.

Blaine walked out into the crowded commons area and down the first flight of stairs, knowing Wes and David were right behind him. Kurt was already standing there with Finn and Quinn, just like Blaine had planned. It hadn't been easy getting in touch with Kurt's step-brother without the younger boy knowing, but Blaine had managed it. He stood there for a moment in silence, waiting for Finn to tell Kurt to turn around.

"Blaine?" Blaine took a deep breath as Kurt said his name, starting the song. The rest of the Warblers would follow his lead.

"_I walked across an empty land  
>I knew the pathway like the back of my hand<br>I felt the earth beneath my feet  
>Sat by the river and it made me complete.<em>"

Blaine walked across the level area, knowing that pretty much the entire student body at McKinley was now watching him sing. He didn't care. This was for Kurt, and that was all that mattered to him.

"_Oh simple thing, where have you gone?  
><em>_I'm getting old and I need something to rely on  
><em>_So tell me when you're gonna let me in  
><em>_I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin_."

As he sang the last line, Blaine ran down the stairs towards the piano waiting at the bottom, taking over for the guy who had gotten up and started playing along with them during the first part of the song. Blaine was more than a little surprised at how quickly the McKinley students were getting into the song, not to mention the fact that several of them were getting involved and playing along with the song he had chosen.

"_And if you have a minute why don't we go  
>Talk about it somewhere only we know<br>This could be the end of everything  
>So why don't we go somewhere only we know?<br>Somewhere only we know_."

Blaine only had eyes for Kurt as he sang; he didn't know if his fellow Warblers were following the plan they had all come up with the day before in rehearsal or not. It didn't matter, either. As he sang the last line, Blaine stepped away from the piano and walked the few steps up to Kurt, taking the other boy's hands and gently pulling him down the stairs, where all of the other Warblers were waiting to say their goodbyes to him. That had been Wes's idea, and in a way it was only right. Kurt wasn't just leaving Blaine behind at Dalton. They were losing a friend as well. And unlike Blaine, Kurt hadn't said goodbye to any of the other Warblers.

"_And if you have a minute why don't we go  
>Talk about it somewhere only we know<br>This could be the end of everything  
>So why don't we go somewhere only we know?<br>Somewhere only we know,  
>Somewhere only we know."<em>

Blaine watched from behind Kurt as all of the other Warblers walked up and said their goodbyes, some hugging him. They were almost at the end of the song when Finn and Mercedes joined in on the hugs, right before Kurt turned around to face Blaine again. Blaine had tears in his eyes by that point, and he had a feeling that Kurt was in the same position. He smiled sadly as the song ended, reaching out and taking Kurt's hands in his own. Blaine didn't give a shit that the whole of McKinley High was staring at the two of them.

"You drove almost two hours from Westerville to sing for me?" Kurt asked.

"We wanted to say goodbye to you properly. Show you that you're going to be missed." Blaine leaned in and pressed a soft kiss against Kurt's lips. Most of the McKinley students were ignoring them now, moving on to do whatever it was they had planed for their lunch period. Not that Blaine would have minded if everyone was watching; Blaine would have kissed Kurt on the stage in the full auditorium, because he just didn't care what anyone else thought.

"Your dad is going to kill you for skipping classes…"

"I don't care. It'll be worth it to get to see you." Blaine just stood there for a moment, holding his boyfriend until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry… we have to go. Jeff's mom is picking him up during last period, so we have to be back before it starts," Wes commented. Blaine let go of Kurt so that the rest of the Warblers could hug him one more time, and then leaned in to press a final kiss on the younger boy's cheek.

Blaine shoved his hands into his pockets as they walked back to their cars, staring down at the ground instead of watching where he was going.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Blaine looked up at the sound of the familiar voice and sighed.

"_We_ came to say goodbye to Kurt. And now we're leaving, so if you'll excuse us," Blaine began, starting to walk around the imposing figure that was Dave Karofsky. Blaine was a little surprised when the larger boy put a hand out against his chest and stopped him. But before Blaine could say a word at least three of the other Warblers were standing between him and the McKinley football player. "Andrew, guys… he's not worth it."

"We're just going to get one thing straight right now," Andrew commented, somehow making himself seem even larger and more imposing than he normally was while he ignored Blaine's protest. "You don't touch Blaine. You don't touch Kurt. Because I will hunt you down if you hurt my friends."

Blaine put a hand on Andrew's shoulder and shook his head, silently telling the taller boy to let it go. Karofsky at least seemed to get the message, because he stepped aside and didn't try to stop Blaine from passing again.

"I guess I should let your little boyfriend know you're afraid of me, too!" Blaine turned around, shaking his head.

"If Kurt hadn't been between us last time, I would have kicked your ass. Of all the things I have to be afraid of, you aren't one of them." It wasn't completely true, of course; Blaine was afraid of what Karofsky might do to Kurt, but that was different than being afraid of Karofsky himself. Blaine would have gladly taken the abuse from the football player if it kept the boy's hands off Kurt.

"Stupid faggot." Blaine had started to turn around and walk away, but the second Karofsky used that word something inside Blaine snapped and he turned around, preparing to launch himself at the football player. Luckily for Blaine, Jeff and Nick were faster than he was and the two boys managed to hold him back. Of course, no one stopped Andrew from walking back up to Karofsky and pushing him into the wall of lockers.

"Consider this your only warning. I don't like homophobes. And I _really_ don't like assholes who use that word."

"Andrew! That's enough," Wes called. Blaine finally stopped struggling against Nick and Jeff, watching as Andrew backed off and walked back towards the rest of the Warblers. "C'mon, guys, we have to get back to Dalton."

**A/n: Okay, so for clarification purposes, Andrew is the Warbler who beatboxes – Jon Hall. I'll be sure to give names of the actor that goes along with any Warbler I give a name to, but I'm using the names given in the show for some of them (i.e. Jeff is Riker Lynch, Nick is Curt Mega, etc.). **


	4. Coming Back

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: So I somehow forgot I had an almost-finished chapter for this story ready to be uploaded. *facepalm* Anyway, here it is!**

Blaine groaned as he woke up, glancing at the clock. He was shocked to see the neon blue numbers showing that it was almost 9:30, almost two hours after he should have left for school. The little red light underneath the number told him it was a weekday. "Fuck…"

Blaine jumped out of the bed, despite the fact that he was exhausted, and rushed down the stairs to his father's office. "Dad, I was supposed to be at school at eight… I think my alarm clock is broken or something. Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Your alarm clock isn't broken… I turned it off when I checked on you last night." Blaine crossed his arms, sighing as his father answered without looking up from the paperwork he was dealing with.

"I'm supposed to be at school…"

"You have a doctor's appointment at ten thirty. I figured you would be better off getting some more sleep rather than getting up and hurrying to school only for me to pull you out after just a couple of classes."

"What's going on, Dad? I didn't know about a doctor's appointment…" Blaine was a little surprised that the man finally chose to look up from his paperwork, especially given the look on his father's face.

"I got worried… you've seized the past three nights in a row."

"W-what? Why didn't you tell me?" Blaine could feel the color draining from his cheeks as he spoke. He hadn't known; he'd been tired, sure, but Blaine had just assumed that he wasn't sleeping very well. He walked over to one of the chairs that was set up in front of his father's desk and sat down.

"I didn't want to worry you. You've had enough on your plate lately… once I could ignore, but three times…" Blaine nodded, thinking about the strange dreams he'd been having. If he was having seizures in his sleep, that could explain those dreams. But it also meant that the things he'd been seeing in his sleep were going to actually happen.

Wes was going to crash his mom's Range Rover, although he would thankfully walk away with relatively minor injures. Being grounded until he moved into his dorm at college in the fall because he wasn't supposed to even touch the vehicle would hurt worse than his broken arm.

His father was going to find out that he had another son, several years older than Blaine, when the boy showed up on their doorstep sometime in the next few weeks. Blaine wasn't quite sure on any of the details, specifically the identity of the other boy's mother, but he did know that his half-brother's name was Ian.

The details about what he'd learned about David were even sketchier; there was something there about a baby, although Blaine wasn't sure if that meant that Chels was going to end up pregnant or not.

"Why don't you go upstairs and get ready? We need to get on the road before long if we're going to make it to Columbus in time for your appointment." Blaine went back up to his room, ignoring the uniform he'd laid out the night before and going into his closet to find a pair of jeans and a decent shirt. Eventually he settled on his favorite old sweater with a white tee shirt underneath. The gray cashmere was thin, bordering on threadbare in places from the fact that Blaine had worn it so many times. "You're wearing that old thing again?"

"It's comfortable…"

"We'd better go. Did you take your meds last night?"

"Of course." Blaine followed his father downstairs, picking up his coat from the little closet by the door as they passed.

The car ride passed in a slightly uncomfortable silence, just like every other car ride Blaine had taken with his dad since he'd come out during his freshman year. This time, of course, their thoughts were far, far away from the vehicle they were in. Blaine closed his eyes, leaning his head against the window as he thought about the possibilities. Halfway through the ride, Blaine pulled out his cell phone to send Kurt a text message.

_Heading to the doctor. I really wish you were here with me right now. :/_

Blaine wasn't really expecting a response very quickly. Kurt was supposed to be in class, after all. So he was surprised when the younger boy responded so quickly Blaine wasn't even sure he'd really had time to read the message.

_Are you okay? What's going on?_

Blaine sighed, closing his eyes again and biting down on his bottom lip.

_More seizures. While I'm asleep apparently. I'll give you more details when I know._

"Shouldn't Kurt be in school right now?"

"I think he is. He just never puts his phone away for some reason." Blaine glanced down at the phone again as it vibrated in his hand. Kurt obviously had his phone sitting in his lap or something, because it was ridiculous how quickly he was responding.

_I'm calling you as soon as I get out of school. I want to know EVERYTHING._

Blaine smiled slightly; of course Kurt wanted to know every single detail. He and Wes were the only people Blaine knew who had heard about his condition and immediately gone to the library to research.

_I'll take notes or something, then. Give you every detail._

"Don't forget to turn that thing off."

Once they were in the doctor's office, the wait wasn't very long. That was one of the perks of having an appointment in the morning rather than later in the afternoon, and one of the reasons Blaine's father always chose to let him go to the doctor when he was supposed to be in school rather than waiting until after classes were over for the day.

Blaine wasn't paying attention when Dr. Carlson first arrived. He didn't know anything about the seizures, so it simply made sense for his father to tell him what was going on. But as soon as the doctor started talking about what they were going to do, he started paying more attention.

"I think we should admit him for a few days for monitoring… hook him up to an EEG, film what's going on."

"When?" Blaine asked.

"As soon as possible. It'll mean missing more school, but this is important… we need to know where these seizures are coming from so we can figure out what we need to do to treat them."

"How long are we talking about here? Two or three days? A week?"

"Three or four. I want to record several seizures, get as much data as possible before we decide what we're going to do," the doctor replied. "I'll have my nurse call you as soon as I can get the test scheduled."

* * *

><p>Blaine hated the hospital; the only good thing about this particular visit was that he was allowed to wear his own pajamas instead of the standard hospital gown. The IV in his arm and the electrodes attached to his head, however, were more of a pain than anything else.<p>

"Is this really necessary?" Blaine asked, wincing as the nurse slid the needle into his arm.

"It'll be easier to give you medication if necessary… it's a precaution."

"I haven't had a seizure that bad in nine years…"

"And until last week you hadn't had any in two. Right now, anything is possible, and you know as well as I do that we need to be able to give you medication as quickly as possible if something happens." Blaine shook his head, still not completely convinced. He ignored the nurse as she finished taping the plastic tubing to his arm so that it wouldn't come out.

"That was my office… I'm sorry, Blaine, I have to go…" Blaine shrugged as his father ducked back into the room, tucking his cell phone back into a pocket. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Take your time… it's not like I'm going anywhere…"

"Blaine…"

"Dad, just go… I'm fine. I'm just in a bad mood," Blaine replied. He watched as the man nodded and turned to walk out. The nurse seemed more upset about that fact than Blaine was; while Blaine was barely phased by the fact that his father was leaving so quickly, the woman looked as though she wanted to call the man back and make him stay with his son. "Don't worry about it. We're not close… that's pretty normal."

"He's your father… I would think he would be more concerned with how you're doing than his work."

"Sometimes I feel like he wishes that wasn't the case." Blaine shook his head. "This is normal. It's easier to just let it go… besides, he's been home with me a lot lately." The nurse still didn't look all that convinced, but she obviously didn't want to argue with him because she didn't say anything else about the situation. Eventually she left, quickly replaced by a "sitter" whose only job was to sit there and make sure that the nurses knew if he started seizing again.

Blaine reached over to the tray table by the bed, picking up his cell phone. He was still waiting on Kurt's call; Dr. Carlson's office had called less than an hour after they'd left, and he'd been admitted to the hospital before the school day ended. It hadn't taken all that long, really; the nurses and techs knew what they were doing because they did this so often, and they could get it done pretty quickly.

Blaine answered as soon as the phone started ringing.

"Hey Kurt."

"_I want to know everything. What's going on?_"

Blaine sighed, glancing around the hospital room as he tried to figure out what to tell Kurt. "They're doing more tests… I'm at the hospital right now."

"_Is everything okay?_"

"I'm fine, Kurt. It's another EEG… they're videotaping the whole thing, trying to figure out what's going on. I just have to stay in the hospital for a few days so they can watch everything that happens."

"_So they don't know anything else yet?_"

"No… maybe in a few days. Speaking of which, I'm stuck here for at least three or four days. Sort of ruins our plans for this weekend…"

"_Who cares? This is more important… I'll come hang out with you instead. I'll bring some movies over, maybe some popcorn…_"

"Only comedies, please… I could use some laughs. Maybe _Camp_?"

"_Okay. I should go, I have rehearsal. Love you._"

"Love you, too. Call me later?"

"_Of course. Bye_."

"Bye…" Blaine hung up the phone, closing his eyes and setting the phone down. He didn't want to let Kurt get off the phone, but he knew that the younger boy didn't have a choice; Kurt was getting ready to go to Nationals with New Directions, and Blaine knew they had to practice. He'd seen Vocal Adrenaline in action, and they were going to be tough to beat.

"Boyfriend?" Blaine looked up, surprised to see the woman the hospital had assigned to sit with him smiling at him. "Is he coming to visit you?"

"Not today. He has a lot going on, and it's a long drive out here from Lima."

"That's too bad. You'll get to see him soon, won't you?"

"This weekend. Hopefully." Blaine glanced down at his phone, flipping through his pictures until he found one that Mercedes had snapped of him and Kurt at the Lima Bean. They were both in uniform because it had been during one of their many afternoon coffee dates, but Blaine sort of loved it. He held the phone out to the woman with a smile. "That's Kurt."

"I thought you said he lived in Lima… that's a Dalton uniform…"

"He used to go to Dalton. He just transferred back to his old school last week… his family couldn't really afford the tuition and he missed all of his old friends."

"I take it you miss him…" Blaine shrugged.

"The timing just sucked. But he gets to go to New York for show choir Nationals with his new choir, so I can't be that upset. He was really upset when they beat us at Regionals… he was the only guy in our choir who hadn't been before and he was really looking forward to it." Blaine took the phone back and put it on the tray table, sighing. "I should probably start on some schoolwork… I'm still a little behind from last week." Blaine picked up the first textbook on his stack and opened it, getting started on the reading assignment.


	5. Scared

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: Yay for a new chapter! This took a while; I'm trying to work on some of my original stuff again as well, so I'm splitting my time between even more stories than what you all are actually seeing – I don't publish my original fiction, mostly because I'm seriously considering attempting to publish once I get something finished.**

Blaine groaned as he reached up, pulling the oxygen mask away from his face. That could only mean one thing: he'd had another seizure. He rolled onto his back, trying to find someone who could tell him what had happened. "Hey… how are you feeling?" Blaine closed his eyes again as he felt the woman who had been sitting with him gently squeeze his hand and touch the side of his face. It was oddly comforting to him to have those women touch him the same way his mother always had when he'd woken up after a seizure.

"Tired… how long?"

"Three minutes. But you were out for a lot longer than usual afterwards." Blaine sighed. He was trying to piece together what he had seen and make some sense of it, but he didn't recognize any of the faces this time. That was unusual; normally he knew who was there and could understand what was going on after he woke up. But all he knew was that there was a fire, smoke and flames and heat so intense that he couldn't really concentrate on anything else.

"I wasn't asleep when this one started, was I?" Blaine vaguely remembered having his phone in his hand, and then he couldn't remember anything else.

"No… not this time." Blaine bit down on his bottom lip and opened his eyes again in an attempt to read the woman's expression. He couldn't really remember her name, but the look on her face was enough. She was worried. And given the fact that Blaine knew she had worked in the hospital for a long time, he knew it was bad.

Blaine glanced up as he heard a knock at the door. "Come in." Blaine was more than a little surprised to see Kurt peek his head around the corner of the door with a smile on his face. "Kurt…"

"I thought you could use some company. I really hated to think of you stuck in the hospital all alone for so long." Kurt closed the distance between them quickly, putting down the side of the hospital bed so that he could sit next to Blaine. Blaine's arm snaked around Kurt's waist and pulled the younger boy close to him.

"I'll give you two a few minutes… if he starts seizing again, just hit the nurse call button." The sitter was out of the room a moment later, and Blaine realized that Kurt was giving him an odd look.

"What did she mean, again?" Blaine sighed, leaning his head against Kurt's shoulder.

"I had a seizure earlier… I was awake this time…" Blaine felt Kurt squeeze his shoulder in an attempt to be reassuring. "I'm starting to get scared, Kurt…"

"I'm scared, too. But you're going to be okay… you're in the hospital for a reason, and they're going to figure out what's wrong with you and fix it." Blaine felt the tears stinging his eyes as Kurt spoke; he couldn't stop them from sliding slowly down his face. Blaine felt Kurt's thumb brushing away the tears. "Don't cry, love."

Blaine did his best to fight the tears, but he couldn't seem to stop them from coming. "I just…"

"You don't have to get so upset. They're going to fix this." Blaine looked up as he heard a knock on the door. "Come in."

Blaine did his best to wipe away the tears as Dr. Carlson came into the room; he didn't want the man to see him crying, even though Blaine was fairly certain that it wouldn't be the first time. The look on the doctor's face, however, didn't really help. "Blaine, your dad's on his way down here…"

"Is everything alright?" Kurt asked.

"We need to run some more tests. If you don't mind, I'd like to speak to Blaine…"

"Kurt can stay… I'd rather have someone else here." Blaine took hold of the younger boy's hand and squeezed it.

"Okay. I think we need to do another MRI… it looks like these seizures are starting in the same place as before. I'm not sure what's going on here. Your seizures shouldn't go from completely under control to this unpredictable this quickly. I'm worried that this may be something more serious."

"More serious than epilepsy?"

"I don't have any more details to give you right now. After we've run some more tests, I'll know more. For now, I'm going to have one of the nurse come and unhook you." Blaine watched as the doctor turned off the camera that had been trained on his bed. "Don't get yourself too worked up about this, Blaine… we don't know anything yet. We're going to do our best to figure this out and get you through this. You going to be okay?"

Blaine pulled his legs up towards his chest as the man spoke, curling closer into Kurt because he wanted the comfort. Kurt seemed to understand and Blaine could feel his arms tightening around him. "I think he's just scared." Blaine looked up as the bed moved slightly, the doctor sitting down on the foot of the bed.

"I know you're worried, Blaine…"

"What… what are the possibilities?" Blaine asked, interrupting the doctor. The way the man sighed concerned him, because he knew that it was probably not something that he wanted to hear.

"I don't know exactly, Blaine… I can't give you any answers just yet. My suspicion is some kind of tumor near one of the foci. I'll know more once we get back the MRI film, and then we can figure out what needs to be done." Blaine nodded, staring down at the sheets. "Whatever is going on, we're going to do everything we can to take care of you."

"Does my dad know?"

"I told him that we need to run some more tests. That this could be something a lot more serious than we originally expected."

* * *

><p>Kurt was exhausted; he'd been at the hospital for hours, alternating between Blaine's room and the waiting room down the hall. He glanced down at his cell phone, sighing as he realized that he was about to miss curfew. Kurt dialed his father's cell phone number quickly.<p>

"_Kurt? It's almost eleven… are you almost home?_"

"No, Dad… I meant to call earlier. I'm still at the hospital with Blaine." Kurt could hear his father's sigh on the other end of the line.

"_It's bad?_"

"It's been a rough day. I really don't want to leave him alone right now…"

"_His dad isn't there?_"

"His dad is here right now, but he's probably going home soon… Blaine and his dad don't get along that well. I don't think Blaine really wants him here."

"_What's going on, Kurt? Is it serious?_" Kurt closed his eyes, reaching up to rub at them with a sigh. "_Kurt?_"

"They found a tumor… his doctor thinks that's what caused all the seizures lately. They think it's benign, but…" Kurt couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence. "Blaine and his dad are talking about what they're going to do next right now. I don't know what they're going to decide, but I know that Blaine's terrified right now."

"_Stay with him… don't drive home tonight, it's getting too late._"

"Thanks, Dad."

"_And Kurt… take care of yourself, too. I know Blaine needs you right now, but don't forget that you can't do everything for him._"

"I know, Dad. Thanks. I love you."

"_Love you too, kid._" Kurt hung up the phone, sighing as he dropped it back down onto his lap. He sighed and rubbed at his eyes, still trying to process everything himself.

"Kurt." The boy looked up as he heard Blaine's father speaking to him. "I think he would rather be with you right now."

"Is everything okay?" Kurt asked, shoving his phone into his pocket as he stood up.

"We're giving up on this discussion until Blaine and I have had some time to sleep on this and figure out what's best… he's too upset right now to really think about anything logically." Kurt nodded. "Thank you. For being here for him, I mean. He really needs someone else right now."

"Someone other than you?" Kurt watched for a moment as the man shook his head and sighed.

"I'm trying to understand him, really. But it's difficult for me… Blaine and I haven't ever really gotten along, and it's not getting any easier as he gets older." The man seemed to be at a loss for words.

"He needs a father. He needs you." Kurt left the room after that, walking quickly down the hall and into the room Blaine had spent the last several days in. The older boy was in the bed, his back towards the door. Kurt could see Blaine's shoulders shaking slightly and he walked up quickly, climbing into the bed and wrapping his arms around Blaine. "It's okay," Kurt whispered, pressing a soft kiss against the older boy's neck.

"It's not okay… not really." Kurt just wrapped his arms a little tighter around the older boy, waiting for Blaine to calm down enough so that they could actually talk about what was going on. Eventually Kurt could feel the boy's shoulders stop shaking and his breathing even out to something more normal. "I'm sorry… I know I should be glad that they know what's wrong. But I can't shake this… this fear." Kurt took the older boy's hand and squeezed it gently.

"It's okay for you to be scared. I think we all are. And you have more right to be afraid than anyone else…" Kurt began.

"I don't want to have surgery…" Kurt squeezed Blaine's hand again, sighing. "It's terrifying. I don't want to go to sleep and never wake up again, Kurt."

"But the seizures are getting worse, babe. This isn't going to go away just because you don't want to go through with the surgery… it's going to keep getting worse. And eventually you're going to have a seizure that won't stop and you may never wake up from that, either…" Kurt leaned in and pressed a kiss against the older boy's cheek again. "Just think about it. You don't have to make a decision right now, but you are going to have to make one soon. And you shouldn't make the wrong decision just because you're afraid of what may happen if you make a different one."

Kurt let go of Blaine as the older boy moved to turn around and face him. "When did you get so smart?" Kurt shook his head in response to the question.

"It's not smart… it's fear of losing you." Kurt leaned in and pressed a soft kiss against Blaine's lips, before the older boy glanced up at the clock.

"You've missed your curfew… you're going to be in trouble." Kurt shook his head, smiling slightly.

"I called my dad and told him what was going on. He said that I should stay tonight. I wasn't ready to leave you alone after all of this, anyway." Blaine curled up against Kurt's chest, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around Kurt as much as possible. "You should get some sleep. I'll be here. All night."

Kurt fell asleep next to Blaine in the hospital bed. It was sort of cramped and uncomfortable, but he didn't really care. He just wanted to be close to the older boy. He woke up several hours later, feeling Blaine's body stiffen in his arms. Kurt shot to his feet, putting up the side of the bed and pressing the button to call a nurse. He watched silently as the boy's body convulsed. Kurt was just glad that Blaine had fallen asleep on his side, so that there wasn't anything that he had to do except watch and wait until the seizure stopped.


	6. The Waiting Game

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: You would think that being on summer break would give me more time to write, but it really doesn't give me that much time because I'm too busy catching up on all the sleep I missed as a law student. Also I know this is short. But the next scene I want to write wasn't something I wanted to write in this chapter…**

Kurt watched silently as Blaine's father paced back and forth across the waiting room. They had been waiting for over an hour for someone to come and let them know what was going on.

"He's stopped seizing." Kurt looked up, biting down on his bottom lip. Blaine's doctor had come into the room, finally. "It's going to be a long few days… he's pretty heavily medicated. We have him on a ventilator for the moment."

"He's not breathing on his own?" Kurt asked, feeling his stomach tie up in knots.

"The medication depresses his respiratory system. It's a necessary precaution," Mr. Anderson explained. Kurt nodded, sighing.

"He can't take much more of this… not without there being permanent damage. He's barely recovering from one seizure before he's hit with another at this point, and we can't keep him this heavily medicated indefinitely." Kurt could feel the tears stinging his eyes as the doctor spoke.

"How soon can we do this?"

"I'll see how soon I can get an operating room. I don't know that I can get him in as an emergency, but I'll schedule it as soon as possible…" Kurt closed his eyes as the doctor sighed. "I'm sorry… I wish there was more that I could do for him…"

"You're doing the best you can for him. I can't ask for more than that. Can we go see him, now?"

"As soon as they're done getting him settled in down the hall, I'll have a nurse come get you." Blaine's father nodded and the doctor seemed to take that as a signal to go.

"I can't believe this is happening." Kurt looked over at Mr. Anderson, who had buried his head in his hands. "We've been avoiding this for so long… he's done so well up until now." Kurt wasn't sure what he should do, so he settled for walking over towards Blaine's father and sat down in the seat next to the older man. "I just wish there was something I could do… something that would put an end to all of this, so that I could have my son back."

Kurt reached out and took the older man's hand. "This is Blaine we're talking about… he's so strong…"

"I know he's strong. But this is… he might…" Kurt squeezed the man's hand, nodding. He knew exactly what the man was thinking – Blaine was strong, but there wasn't much they could do to prevent brain damage if the seizures didn't stop soon.

"Mr. Anderson?" Kurt looked up at the nurse, who was smiling at them. "We've got him settled in… if you'd like to go in now." Mr. Anderson nodded, standing up.

"Kurt… Kurt's allowed to come in, isn't he?"

"It's supposed to be family only…" the nurse began.

"Blaine would much rather have Kurt in there than me, I'm sure." Kurt watched silently as the nurse nodded, smiling slightly.

"Just tell anyone that asks that they're brothers." Kurt followed Blaine's father and the nurse back into the intensive care unit, biting down on his lip as they went through the double doors. The nurse pushed back a curtain and suddenly Kurt understood exactly how serious the entire situation really was.

Blaine looked so small and pale in the hospital bed. Kurt had known to expect the tube down Blaine's throat that was helping the older boy breathe, but it still didn't completely prepare Kurt to actually _see_ the older boy looking so ill. "I know it looks scary… but you shouldn't worry too much just yet. It's just going to take some time for him to come out of this."

"Thank you," Mr. Anderson replied, smiling slightly at the nurse as she left. Kurt sighed, walking up to the bed and reaching down to take one of Blaine's hands in his own.

"He looks so… he's so pale…" Kurt began. He bit down on his lip again, waiting to know what would happen.

"It's going to take a while before he wakes up. You're welcome to stay for as long as you want, but it could be days…" Kurt nodded.

"I just want to stay with him… just for a little while longer." Kurt felt the man put a hand on his shoulder.

* * *

><p>Kurt dropped onto the couch in his family's living room, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "How's Blaine doing?" Kurt sighed at the sound of his father's voice asking the question. "Something wrong, Kurt?"<p>

"It's worse. I just… I don't know what to do any more. He's so sick, Dad… it's going to kill him if they can't stop this. I want to be there for him, but I can't stand to see him like this…" Kurt could feel the tears stinging his eyes, and he didn't even bother to stop them from falling this time around. Kurt felt his father sit down on the couch and wrap an arm around him.

"Kurt, it's not your responsibility to be there to take care of Blaine. I know you love this boy, and that you feel the need to be there for him, but this isn't something that you can handle on your own." Kurt felt his father tighten the hug, pulling him close. "We're here for you, okay kid?"

Kurt nodded. "Thanks, Dad." Kurt pulled away from the hug, straightening up and staring ahead of him, sighing. "I just wish there was something I could do for him… but they've got him so drugged at the moment that he wouldn't even know if I was there…"

"What exactly is going on with Blaine? You said he was worse, but what does that mean?" Kurt took a deep breath.

"It's called status epilepticus… it's a seizure that won't end on its own. They had to give him really high doses of medication to make it stop, and he's not breathing on his own right now…" Kurt trailed off, knowing that his father would understand why he was so worried.

"That's really bad, isn't it?"

"Seizures can cause brain damage… the longer they go on, the more likely it is that there will be some kind of permanent damage. He was seizing for almost an hour today before they could make it stop…" Kurt closed his eyes and leaned forward, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's going to be a while before he wakes up… I just don't know if I can stand the waiting." Kurt could feel his father put a hand on his shoulder.

"I know this has to be difficult for you… dealing with me being sick back in the fall, and now watching Blaine go through all of this. But you should know that I'm proud of you for handling all of it so well."

Kurt looked up, turning to face his father for a moment. "Blaine's surgery is going to be on Monday…" he began.

"I'll write you an excuse. Just ask Finn to get your assignments for you." Kurt smiled slightly for the first time that day.

"Thanks, Dad."

"Why don't you go upstairs and get some rest? I'll make sure you don't sleep through dinner." Kurt sat there for a moment as his father stood up, before he followed suit. He turned to walk away, but thought better of it and gave his father another hug before he went upstairs and collapsed onto his bed, too physically and emotionally exhausted to even bother worrying about changing into pajamas.

**A/n: Alright, so coming up in the next chapter you'll finally get to find out what Blaine saw during the seizure that started at the end of the last chapter. It'll be… interesting, to say the least.**


	7. Decisions

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: So I apologize that this chapter is going to be rather short. But I felt like the only way to make it longer would be to make the chapter double the length of my normal chapters for this story and I didn't want to do that. Especially since that would make you all wait even longer for an update, and this has already taken quite a while.**

Blaine knew that what he saw was the result of a seizure because it made no sense. He had been in bed with Kurt but suddenly he could see his father and the countertenor sitting in a waiting room, obviously exhausted and worried about… something. Blaine could only assume that it had something to do with him, given the fact that he was obviously having a seizure. The scene didn't last long; Dr. Carlson came into the room and spoke to them, but as soon as Blaine could see that they were concerned the vision was over.

The second vision came quickly, surprising Blaine. Normally he just had one vision at a time. The fact that he was now watching Kurt break down in his living room could only mean one thing – Blaine wasn't waking up between seizures. Seeing Kurt crying in his own father's arms scared Blaine. What if it meant that he wasn't going to wake up? Did it mean that he was going to die from this one?

Blaine could feel his hands shaking as the scene faded away. He looked around him again, smiling slightly as he realized that he was in his family's living room again. Except that he hadn't been there when he'd started having the seizure, and there wasn't any kind of activity going on. Blaine sat down on the couch, wondering what was going on.

"They love you. Very much." Blaine glanced up as he heard a familiar voice. He could feel the tears stinging his eyes as he realized who he was looking at.

"M-mom?" Blaine watched as she nodded, smiling and sitting down next to him. It was strange – he knew that she was dead but he could feel her there next to him, holding his hand and reaching up to stroke his cheek. She didn't look sick; she looked like the mother he remembered from before the cancer treatments, healthy and happy with all of her own hair.

"I'm so proud of you, sweetie." Blaine closed his eyes as he felt her press a kiss against his forehead.

"What's going on? Why am I here?" Blaine asked, watching as she sat down on the couch next to him. He wasn't at all surprised when his mother took his hands with a smile on her face.

"Everyone is put on Earth for a reason – they have a purpose. You've already done what you were sent there to do…"

"But I haven't done anything… not really. I couldn't save anyone from what I saw in my visions. Not even you."

"You saved Kurt." Blaine shook his head, trying to figure out what she meant. "He needed to meet you and fall in love. Even if he loses you, you still saved him."

"Wait… I'm not dead, am I?"

"No, sweetie. But you have to choose whether or not you are going to go back." Blaine raised an eyebrow, confused.

"Why wouldn't I go back?"

"Blaine, you're going to die young. I can't tell you much, but even if you go back you don't have that much time left…"

"Then why am I getting a choice?" Blaine asked.

"Because you and Kurt truly love each other. It's going to break his heart to lose you no matter how much time the two of you have together." Blaine could feel his mother starting to play with his hair as they sat there. "The two of you would have years together if you go back… not a lifetime, but still a long time."

"You haven't given me any reasons not to go back… all you've told me is that we won't have as much time together as most people. So why shouldn't I go back?"

"If you don't go back, Kurt will find someone else. He'll be happy." Blaine looked down at the floor, biting down on his bottom lip.

"Would he fall in love with someone after me if I didn't leave? Would he be happy after I left him?"

"Kurt would find a way to be happy, no matter what happened. He'll never forget about you, but he will move on."

"What would make Kurt happier? Would he be better off with or without me?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Then how am I supposed to decide?" Blaine asked. "How can I choose one way or the other when I don't know what's the best thing to do?"

"You have to follow your heart. Do what you think is right."

"I don't know what's right…"

"You'll know what to do when the time comes." Blaine glanced over at his mother's face.

"You'll stay with me until I have to choose, won't you?"

"I'll stay for as long as I can."

* * *

><p>Blaine blinked a few times as he woke up. He didn't realize that he'd fallen asleep, and he felt bad for missing out on the few precious moments he'd had with his mother. It had been so long – Blaine had been unconscious the last time they'd been together, and he hadn't been allowed to go to her funeral because of the seizures. But she was gone now, and Blaine was left to figure out what to do on his own. He didn't know what he was going to do, or even how he would go about doing whatever it was that he needed to do.<p>

"How am I supposed to figure this out on my own?" Blaine muttered, shaking his head. If he stayed away, Kurt would fall in love with someone else and be happy with him. But if Blaine went back, the two of them would be happy together. They wouldn't have long together, but they would be happy. And Kurt would be happy once Blaine was gone, too. But Blaine couldn't help but wonder whether or not going back to his boyfriend and his father would be selfish.

The more he thought about things, the more Blaine became convinced that he knew what he had to do. Finally he closed his eyes again, knowing that he had made the right decision.


	8. The Choice

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: I decided to update this story before some of my others… I couldn't leave all of you hanging after that last chapter any longer!**

It was the waiting that bothered Kurt the most. He had been waiting for four days to hear if there was any change, and he'd driven to the hospital as soon as he'd gotten out of school on Friday in the hopes that something would have changed since the last time he'd talked to Blaine's father. The only hopeful sign was the fact that Blaine hadn't had any seizures since the surgery.

Dr. Carlson hadn't been able to explain exactly why Blaine hadn't woken up yet. By all accounts, he should have woken up within a few hours of surgery. But instead the boy had slipped into a coma, and now it was simply a waiting game to find out whether he was going to wake up or not. From what Blaine's father had told Kurt, it was starting to sound as though the hospital's staff was starting to give up hope that the boy would recover.

"Coffee?" Kurt glanced up from the magazine he had been glancing through, smiling at the sight of Mr. Anderson with a paper cup from the Starbucks down the street. "I figured you might need some after that drive. I take it nothing's changed?"

"Not yet." Kurt took the cup of coffee with a grateful smile. "Thanks for this, by the way."

"I'm just glad that there's someone else who cares enough to be here… I don't think I could do this by myself." Kurt nodded, glancing over at the bed where Blaine was still sleeping.

"He looks so peaceful… I just wish he would wake up already."

"The waiting is the hardest part… it's always the hardest. This has always been my biggest fear, that he just wouldn't wake up one day. Now that it's coming true…"

"But he's going to wake up," Kurt replied, trying to sound more confident about everything than he really felt.

"I hope so. But nothing is certain right now…"

"He's made it this far…" Kurt began. He took his coffee and stood up, walking over towards the bed and gently running a hand through Blaine's hair. He reached down and twined his fingers loosely with Blaine's. For some reason, Kurt felt the need to touch the older boy, to be close to him. If he hadn't been worried about what the nurses would say, he would have climbed in the bed next to Blaine and simply laid there with him just so he could have as much physical contact with him as possible.

"Just don't get your hopes up too high, Kurt. There's no way of predicting what's going to happen in the future with Blaine's health… he's really fragile, especially right now."

Kurt sighed. He didn't know how to respond to that comment. Kurt simply chose to watch Blaine for a few moments, hoping for some kind of movement or something to indicate that Blaine might be waking up. "I can stay with him tonight, if you want to go home and get a decent night's sleep. It doesn't look like anything is going to be changing any time soon."

* * *

><p>Kurt looked around in confusion, wondering why he had woken up in the middle of the night. He was normally a fairly sound sleeper; it wasn't normal for Kurt to wake up before an appropriate time in the morning.<p>

"Kurt?" Kurt instantly shot up on the cot that had been left in the room for Blaine's father, recognizing the soft whisper. He got up and hurried over to the hospital bed, reaching out and gently rubbing his thumb across Blaine's forehead as his fingers twined in the boy's curls. "Kurt…"

"I'm here, Blaine… I'm here."

"How long was I out?" Kurt smiled as the boy reached up and took his hand.

"A week… we were scared that you weren't going to wake up." Kurt leaned over and pressed a kiss against the older boy's forehead, closing his eyes and burying his face in Blaine's curls despite the fact that they hadn't been washed in over a week.

"Love you…" Kurt smiled at the way the boy muttered out the phrase, seemingly exhausted.

"I love you, too, Blaine."

"Stay with me?"

"Of course," Kurt replied, smiling. He watched as Blaine tried to move over to make some room. "Do you want some help?" Kurt gently lifted the older boy's torso and moved him over to one side before he put down the side of the bed and climbed into the empty space he'd made. He wrapped one of his arms around Blaine's body, wanting to be as close as possible to the older boy now that he was awake.

"Don't leave me…"

"I'm not going anywhere, babe. I'll still be here when you wake up." Kurt watched silently as Blaine drifted back off to sleep in his arms. He didn't want to move for fear of waking Blaine up too quickly after he'd fallen back to sleep.

Kurt wasn't sure when he drifted off to sleep. He was, however, very sure that the nurse who was staring down at him when he woke up was not happy about the situation. "What are you doing?"

"He asked me to stay with him… he woke up and he didn't want to be alone," Kurt replied, gently pulling his arm away from Blaine's body. The telling groan that came from Blaine as Kurt pulled away changed the woman's demeanor slightly.

"He's awake? Why didn't you call a nurse when he woke up last night?"

"I didn't think about it," Kurt replied. "I was distracted by the fact that he was awake and talking to me." Kurt glanced down at Blaine, smiling as he realized that the older boy had opened his eyes and was listening to the entire conversation. "Hey…"

"You're not leaving, are you?"

"No… I just have to get up now…" Kurt replied, moving further away and starting to stand up. He stopped when he felt a hand weakly grip his wrist.

"Don't go…"

"I'll still be here, babe… I'll just be a little further away from you."

"Please…" Kurt took hold of Blaine's hand and squeezed it.

"I'll hold your hand, okay?" Kurt smiled as Blaine nodded. Kurt finished standing up before he turned and looked at the nurse again. "Like I said, he's awake."

"I should call Dr. Carlson… he'll want to know what's going on." Kurt smiled as the woman turned and pretty much ran out of the room. He took the opportunity to turn back towards Blaine with a smile on his face.

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired… stiff."

"Well, you haven't really moved for the past week. Your body's been trying to heal after the seizures and the surgery…"

"Surgery?" Kurt had forgotten the fact that Blaine hadn't woken up between the time he'd started seizing and now.

"They removed the tumor… you haven't had a seizure since." Kurt watched as Blaine shook his head slightly. He was a little surprised at how weak Blaine had become, how difficult even the slightest movements seemed to be for the boy.

"But… but I didn't want…"

"Shh… just relax. It's all over now. You're going to be fine. You're going to get your strength back, and then you're going to get to go home," Kurt replied, leaning over and pressing a kiss against Blaine's forehead. "Why don't you close your eyes? Get some rest?"

"I just want you… I don't want to ever be without you again…" Kurt raised an eyebrow at the comment, but let it go. He didn't know what Blaine meant, and he wasn't really sure that he wanted to know.


	9. Confession

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: I am in Ohio. Writing fanfiction. While I wait for everyone to get ready to leave because Glee Live! is TONIGHT! How am I even focusing on ANYTHING other than the crazy dance moves going on in my hotel room right now?**

Blaine opened his eyes slowly, turning his head to look up at Kurt with a slight smile on his face. "You're awake."

"How long was I asleep?" Blaine asked, shifting slightly and laughing as the hammock moved under them.

"I dunno… I fell asleep too. Thank Gaga your dad put this thing up under the trees out here instead of in the sun… I would probably be a lobster by now if he hadn't." Blaine reached up with one hand and gently pushed the hair out of Kurt's face. "You know, a couple of months ago I wouldn't have even dared to dream that we would be hanging out in your backyard the week after school got out."

"I wouldn't have dared to dream that I would actually have finished the year with everyone else," Blaine joked, smiling slightly. He'd finished the year off on time thanks to the help of some private tutoring his father had paid for, but he'd just barely gotten all of his work in on time. And now he was enjoying the payoff for all of the time and effort he'd put into getting all of his junior year schoolwork done. "If I'd been at a public school, it wouldn't have taken me the entire rest of the semester to catch up."

"If you'd been in public school when you had that first seizure, you wouldn't have wanted to go back," Kurt commented. Blaine shifted again so that he could wrap both of his arms around Kurt's torso and rest his head against the taller boy's shoulder. "I'm kind of surprised that you don't have plans for the whole summer, to be honest."

"I was planning on auditioning for the show at Six Flags… but my dad kind of nixed that idea," Blaine replied. "I sort of still don't have a license, and he doesn't like the idea of me being in a theme park all day every day right now." Blaine closed his eyes as he snuggled up a little closer to Kurt.

"I think he has a right to be nervous about that. I know I would be if I were him…" Blaine shrugged. He knew that Kurt was right – he had actually been kind of nervous about the idea himself. "So tell me, what's the deal with all of the cuddling this afternoon?"

"I just want to be close to you… that's okay, right?" Blaine asked, starting to move away slightly. He smiled as Kurt pulled him back again.

"Of course that's okay. I was just curious," Kurt replied. Blaine looked up at the taller boy for a moment, smiling at him. "I actually kind of love this… relaxing in the hammock, cuddling with my boyfriend. It's peaceful." Blaine shifted again, moving so that he could press a soft kiss against Kurt's lips. He closed his eyes again as he moved to lie down next to Kurt. They spent several minutes just lying there, comfortable enough with each other that they didn't need to say anything.

"Kurt, I want to tell you something. Something I haven't told anyone else…" Blaine began. He wasn't sure what had possessed him to say that. But something in his gut told Blaine that Kurt needed to know. "I think you're going to think I'm crazy."

"Why would I think you're crazy?" Kurt asked. Blaine bit down on his bottom lip as Kurt pulled away from him slightly.

"Because what I'm about to say sounds pretty crazy. Even I think that, and I fully believe what I'm telling you…" Blaine turned so that he didn't have to look Kurt directly in the face until after he'd explained everything. "I see… things. When I have seizures."

"What do you mean?"

"The first seizure, the one I had at rehearsal… I was seeing you, dancing on stage with New Directions again. You were wearing a white tee shirt that said 'likes boys' across the front in huge black letters," Blaine replied. He bit down on his bottom lip for a moment before he sighed. "I knew Wes was going to crash his mom's car about two weeks before it happened. And there was something about David and a baby… the details were a little sketchier there than usual on that one." Blaine didn't mention his half-brother; he was starting to wonder if that would actually happen or not because Ian still hadn't shown up.

"You're telling me that you _saw_ all of those things happening while you were having seizures?" Kurt seemed surprised, but Blaine didn't think that the younger boy was thinking that he was insane. Yet.

"I can't remember ever having a seizure and _not_ seeing something strange."

"So you're like… clairvoyant or something?" Blaine shrugged.

"I don't know. Like I said, I never told anyone before. I haven't even really looked into it…" Blaine glanced at Kurt, trying to gauge what the boy was thinking based on the look on his face. Kurt was biting down on his bottom lip, staring off into space.

"That's why you were asking me if I was thinking about going back to McKinley… you knew already that I was going to end up back there." Blaine nodded. "What else do you know?"

"Nothing right now…" It wasn't completely a lie; Blaine didn't know any of the details. And he certainly didn't want to tell Kurt that they were going to stay together for a while – Blaine was a little afraid that it would scare Kurt off that he _knew_ the future of their relationship.

"What about during the last seizure?" Kurt asked.

"Kurt…"

"Please… I'm just trying to understand. I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around this, and I need to know what it is you saw." Blaine turned his entire body away, closing his eyes. He hadn't particularly wanted to tell Kurt so much. But it had been silly of Blaine to think that he could drop such a bombshell on the younger boy and expect him to just accept what was said.

"I saw my mom…" Blaine bit down on his bottom lip.

"Your… but she's dead. How can you see her in the future?"

"It wasn't in the future. It was… I can't even tell you what that was. I just know that it happened, and she said that I had to make a choice." Blaine turned his head back so that he could look at Kurt again. He was a little relieved that the boy looked more confused than anything else. At least he didn't think that Blaine was a complete freak.

"A choice?"

"I… I had to choose whether or not I was going to come back. For you."

"You chose me."

"You would have been okay, whether I chose you or not. I had to choose between hurting you now and hurting you later. And I couldn't give you up."

"What do you mean, hurting me?" Kurt asked. Blaine could tell that he was really confused.

"I'm going to leave you, Kurt. Not soon… but one day I'm not going to get to choose, and you're going to get left behind. And I don't want to hurt you… but I couldn't stand the idea of losing you so soon after I found you."


	10. Family

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: So this chapter was always going to be part of the story, but it makes me VERY happy to write this now that gay marriage is legal in New York! And yes, that did affect the chapter, but only slightly. So yay! Anyways, I hope you enjoy… there isn't a lot left to this story, but it isn't going to be a cop-out ending, I promise.**

It was cold. Ridiculously cold. And while Blaine and Kurt had grown up in the Midwest, New York City somehow seemed to be much colder than Ohio had ever been. The extreme cold when it snowed seemed to be the one thing that neither of the men could get used to, despite having been in the city for six years.

"It feels like hell has frozen over," Kurt commented, shivering as he carefully put the infant seat down on the couch and sat down next to it, lifting off the layers of blankets that covered the tiny child inside. Blaine smiled at him and walked over, leaning over the back of the couch and watching as Kurt carefully undid the buckle and slowly lifted their little girl out of the confines of the seat.

"It must have… you know, my cousin Meredith said it would before we'd have a child, adopted or otherwise," Blaine replied. Under normal circumstances thinking about that particular conversation made him mad – Meredith was a bit of a homophobe – but today there was nothing that would upset him. He was a father. "I can't believe this beautiful little creature is _ours_. She's so perfect…"

"I can't believe how beautiful she is," Kurt replied, carefully cradling her to his chest as he smiled up at Blaine. Blaine smiled as the little girl whimpered slightly and opened her eyes for a moment. "Oh Gaga… did we remember the formula? Diapers? I can't even remember if we got everything we needed when we went shopping the other day…"

"Yes, we have formula… the hospital sent us home with some and I made sure to pick up a can when I came home to sleep last night. And we've bought diapers on every shopping trip since we found out that Ana Marie chose us to be this precious little girl's parents. We're prepared." Blaine reached out and carefully took their little girl from his husband's arms, smiling as he lifted her over his head for a moment before settling her against his chest. She was so small and light, he was almost afraid that he would drop her. He leaned his head down and pressed a soft kiss against her black curls. "I love you, Rylie."

"We should put her down for a while… she might never want to be put down if we don't," Kurt commented. Blaine nodded as his husband walked around the couch towards him and the two carried their precious little girl down the hall and into their bedroom, where they'd placed the baby's crib. It had been a conscious decision – they would be able to get to her and quiet her crying more quickly if she slept in the room with them, and they hoped that would appease some of the neighbors who hadn't been that happy with the idea of having a baby next door.

Blaine carefully put the little girl down in the crib, smiling as she stretched for a moment and then settled down to sleep again. "Why don't we lay down and get some rest while she's sleeping? I don't think either of us have slept much since we got the call that she was on her way…"

"Why don't you sleep? I'm going to stay awake for now and get some things done around the house. You need the rest more than I do," Kurt replied. Blaine nodded, leaning in to press a kiss against Kurt's lips and smiling slightly.

"What would I do without you to take care of me?" Blaine asked.

"You'd probably never sleep unless you were passed out from exhaustion. Put your shoes away before you lay down, though… I don't want to trip over them in the dark."

"I'm not going to sleep that long." Blaine kicked off his shoes and picked them up obediently, walking into the closet and putting them in the hanging organizer Kurt had put up for him.

"You're not allowed to set an alarm. You know that you have to get enough sleep…" Kurt began. Blaine hurried over to him and pressed a kiss against his lips, mostly to make him stop talking.

"Please don't lecture. I don't need that…" Blaine smiled as Kurt rolled his eyes and pressed a soft kiss against his cheek.

"Just get some sleep."

* * *

><p>"Blaine, sweetie, she's starting to get a little fussy… if you'll take her again, I'll go make a bottle," Carole said. Blaine smiled and took his daughter from his mother-in-law.<p>

"I know how to make a bottle, Carole… we've survived the past couple of weeks without you…" Blaine commented, smiling and doing his best to make it obvious that he wasn't upset about her comment.

"True… but you're better with her than I am," Carole replied, just as the little bundle in Blaine's arms started squirming and whimpering softly. Blaine stood up and started to gently bounce the baby, humming softly to her as they waited for the promised bottle. "So tell me… when is Ana Marie going to be visiting?" Blaine could hear the apprehension in Carole's voice as she asked the question. Blaine had known to expect that kind of reaction; everyone who knew they'd chosen an open adoption had been skeptical so far, mostly because they were all afraid that the baby's mother would change her mind.

"She wanted to wait a while… said that if she didn't see Rylie for a while, it would be easier to let her go when the time came," Blaine replied. He glanced down at the little girl in his arms, wondering to himself how anyone could give up something so precious. He would always be grateful for Ana Marie giving them this gift. "She said she's going to wait until after the adoption is finalized to visit." Blaine took the bottle Carole offered, smiling as he adjusted the little baby so she could eat.

"She really wants the two of you to keep Rylie, doesn't she?" Carole asked.

"Ana Marie can't finish school with a baby… and she'll always be able to visit us. It's part of the agreement we made before Rylie was born. Before we left the hospital, Ana Marie told me that she feels like everyone wins this way. We get the baby we wanted, Rylie gets two parents to love her and take care of her, and she gets to finish school and still be Aunt Ana." Blaine couldn't help but smile down at Rylie as the little girl sucked down the formula slowly. Carole was watching the two of them with a silent smile on her face.

"I just don't want you boys to get hurt by this…" Carole began.

"I know. It's tough to think about. But I don't think Ana Marie would take her away from us." Blaine looked up as Kurt opened the front door and walked in, followed by Burt.

"We're home! How's our little girl?" Kurt asked. Blaine smiled as his husband hurried over and stole the baby from him.

"Perfect, as usual," Blaine replied, leaning over and pressing a kiss against Kurt's cheek as the taller man held the bottle for Rylie. "She's been sleeping most of the time you were gone. I think we're going to be up all night with her. Again."

"We've been up with her all night every night since we brought her home. I think we'll survive." Blaine smiled at Kurt and shook his head, sighing.

"The joys of parenthood, right?"

"Oh just wait… you boys may never get a good night's sleep again because of worrying about her. I still lose sleep at night worrying about all of my boys," Carole commented. Blaine watched as the older couple put their arms around each other, smiling at the sight of the new little family. Blaine smiled for a moment, doing his best to ignore the lightheaded feeling that had washed over him.

"I think I'm going to go lay down for a minute," he commented, kissing Kurt's cheek and starting towards the bedroom.

"Are you okay?" Blaine shook his head. "Blaine?"

"I just need to lay down…" Blaine began, closing his eyes as the rushing sound started in his ears.

"Mom… take Rylie…" Blaine did his best to keep walking down the hall towards the bedroom, forcing a smile as he felt Kurt put an arm around him. "Come on… sit down." Blaine wasn't sure if he followed Kurt's instructions or not. The next thing Blaine knew, he was watching his family – everyone who loved him – crying around an open grave. And Blaine knew what that meant.


	11. Hospitals

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: And I'm bad and wrote more for this story instead of getting any of my others updated. But now that I'm writing these last few chapters to wrap things up, I don't want to stop because I'm afraid I'll forget some of the things I want to do before I finish this story off.**

Kurt hadn't thought that he could be more thankful for having his parents in the city for a visit than he had been when they had offered to take Rylie the night before so that he and Blaine could get some sleep. But at this moment, as he was sitting in the ER waiting room with his father, Kurt could only think of how lucky they were that his parents were in town because he wasn't sure that he could handle dealing with the new baby and his husband's first seizure in several years without the help.

"He'll be fine, Kurt. It's probably just stress…" Burt began.

"He's dealt with stress in the past without having seizures. He's barely had any seizures since high school, and they were pretty much all caused by him being sick or forgetting his medication," Kurt replied. He sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing them with the heels of his hands. "I'm just worried that it's a tumor again… they said it could happen. I just don't want him to have to go through all of that again."

"Blaine's tough, Kurt. You picked a good man." Kurt smiled slightly as Burt put a hand on his shoulder.

"He… he told me that he would leave me one day. That he wasn't going to have a choice…" Kurt began.

"Kurt…"

"I'm not ready to lose him, Dad. I walked into this marriage and this life knowing that it would end with Blaine…" Kurt couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence. It hurt too much to think about his husband potentially dying. Kurt pulled his knees up to his chest like a child, letting his father put an arm around his shoulders and try to comfort him.

"You're not going to lose him, Kurt. You will always have Blaine. Right here." Kurt felt his father put a hand over his heart. "And you're not losing him. Not yet."

"Mr. Hummel?" Both men looked up at the sound of Dr. Lowery's voice. "Blaine's okay… exhausted, but he'll be okay in a day or two."

"Do you know what caused the seizure?" Kurt asked, putting his feet back down on the floor.

"I can't explain it yet. I'm going to admit him, just for tonight, and we'll run a few more tests. For now I'm going to let him get some rest. I'm assuming you want to go upstairs with him…"

"Of course," Kurt replied, standing up to follow the doctor. He stopped, shaking his head. "Wait… I have to call Carole…"

"I'll take care of that, Kid. Just go be with Blaine… we'll keep Rylie tonight if you want to stay with him."

"Thank you, Dad," Kurt replied, wrapping his arms around his father in a quick hug before he followed the doctor back through the maze of curtains and rooms that lead to Blaine.

The man seemed to be resting comfortably; his eyes were closed, and the only real signal that something was wrong with him was the hospital gown and the IV in his arm. There weren't any other monitors or anything else other than a call button nearby and a nurse standing watch to make sure that any other seizures were recorded and monitored.

"If you want to stay tonight, just let one of the nurses upstairs know and they can get a cot for you. Or a sitter, if you need to leave for any reason."

"Thanks, Dr. Lowery," Kurt replied, moving closer to the bed and leaning over to press a soft kiss against Blaine's forehead. He smiled as the man slowly opened his eyes and looked up at him. "Hey, handsome."

"I know I look like crap… what did Dr. Lowery say?" Blaine asked. Kurt couldn't help but furrow his brow in concern over how exhausted his husband sounded.

"No explanation yet, but they're going to run some more tests in the morning. After you've had a chance to rest tonight… but they're going to keep you here."

"Give Rylie a goodnight kiss for me, okay? And don't forget to read to her at some point tonight…"

"I wasn't planning on leaving you," Kurt commented, squeezing Blaine's hand gently. "Dad and Mom have it under control… they offered to keep her another night so that I could stay until they release you tomorrow."

"Kurt… I'm fine. Rylie needs one of her Daddies at home. Your parents are great, but they don't know where everything is, or how to do her bedtime routine, or…"

"Blaine, don't worry. That's what I have a cell phone for. And my dad's still here, we can make sure he knows exactly what to do before he goes back to the apartment. Trust me, they're good with kids… Carole raised Finn by herself until he was a teenager, and he turned out alright. Besides, it's just one night that she won't even remember anyway."

"Kurt…" Kurt shook his head at Blaine's attempts to protest.

"No. This isn't open for discussion. I'm going to stay with you tonight, and that's final." Kurt leaned over and pressed a kiss against Blaine's cheek as an orderly came into the curtained-off area with a wheelchair to take them upstairs. Kurt helped his husband up and into the chair, never letting go of the curly-haired man's hand. It only took a few minutes for the two of them to be settled into a room upstairs, with Kurt curled up on the hospital bed next to Blaine so that he could wrap his arms around his husband's body as the big spoon. Kurt gently stroked a hand through Blaine's curls as the man slept. "I love you…" he whispered softly.

* * *

><p>"There's no tumor or any other obvious reason for new seizures. At this point I think we should just chalk it up to either exhaustion or stress and up your medication as a precaution," Dr. Lowery said, making a couple of marks in Blaine's chart. "I already have the discharge paperwork processing… I'll get one of the nurses to come remove the IV, and then once you're dressed you should be ready to go home."<p>

"And if I have another seizure?" Blaine asked.

"Hopefully it won't happen. But if it does, you need to call my office, day or night. Get some rest for the next few days… try to get as much sleep as possible. I don't know when your family leave ends, but if you need to take a few extra days off work just call the office and I'll get you an excuse."

"Thank you, Dr. Lowery," Kurt replied. He squeezed his husband's hand for what felt like the millionth time in the past 24 hours. He smiled as the man left them alone, turning to his husband. "Okay… so the good news is that there isn't a tumor…"

"Which is also bad news because it means that there's no reason for the seizure…" Kurt bit down on his bottom lip, sighing.

"Blaine… what did you see during the seizure?" Kurt remembered the conversation they'd had seven years earlier in Blaine's backyard and all of the things Blaine told Kurt that he'd seen after the various seizures he'd had. Blaine had told Kurt everything.

"You don't want to know this time, Kurt."

"I always want to know. What did you see?" Under other circumstances, Kurt probably wouldn't have pushed Blaine to give him information, but he desperately wanted to know what was going on.

"It's coming. Soon. I don't know dates or details or anything like that, but Rylie wasn't very old… two at the most." Kurt nodded. Even though he knew that the time would come, he still couldn't help but be concerned over how little time they were going to have left.

"You still don't know how?" Kurt asked. Blaine shook his head, sighing.

"That's one detail that always seems to escape me." Kurt watched as Blaine closed his eyes again. "I wish I could tell you… I wish I knew."

"Maybe it's better if you don't. If we don't. I can't imagine that knowing how it happens would make it any easier." Kurt leaned over and pressed a kiss against Blaine's forehead, doing his best to hide his tears.

"Don't cry…" Blaine whispered. Kurt couldn't help but smile.

"How do you always know?"

"I just know you that well. Now stop crying… we don't have a reason to cry yet."

"But you just said…" Kurt began.

"I'm not dead yet. And we have some time still. We have time to be sad. But for now we should just enjoy the time we have left. All three of us."


	12. Back to Work

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: Alright – I'm not sure why, but I can picture Blaine as an elementary school teacher for some reason. And don't hurt me… the bunnies make me do it!**

Blaine smiled as he walked into his classroom full of fourth graders on the first day of March, his first day back at work since he and Kurt had gotten the call that Rylie was on her way. "Alright, guys, settle down!"

"Mr. Anderson! You're back!"

"Yes, Nicholas, I am. And I need _everyone_ to sit down in their seats so that we can get started this morning!" Blaine smiled as several of his students hurried across the room to their desks and sat down. "Alright guys, first things first… let's get attendance and all of the boring Monday stuff out of the way… yes, Jana?" Blaine smiled as one of his students raised a hand to ask a question.

"Mr. Anderson, can we see pictures of the baby today?"

"Maybe after recess today… I don't have any pictures loaded on my computer yet," Blaine replied, sitting down at his desk and starting to go through the routine of getting everyone settled down for a day of learning.

Blaine was halfway through passing back the math homework he'd collected at the beginning of the day a few hours later when he started to feel… off. It had been a few weeks since his last seizure, but Blaine recognized the feeling immediately. The lightheaded feeling wouldn't last long, and he needed to make sure that he wasn't going to hurt himself when he lost consciousness. He also wasn't particularly sure that he wanted his students to see him having a seizure – the last thing Blaine wanted to do was to traumatize one of them. "Nicholas, would you mind returning the rest of this homework for me? Class, I'll be right back…"

For once, Blaine was glad that Kurt insisted he keep his phone on his person while he was at school for the first few days, at least until Rylie and her new nanny were doing well together. It made it easy for him to dial Kurt's number as he walked out of the classroom and sat down on the floor in the hallway.

"_Hello?_"

"Kurt… help…"

"_Blaine? What's wrong?_"

"I'm having a seizure. At school. I don't know what to do…"

"_Where are you? Are you going to be okay?_"

"I'm in the hall outside my classroom. Please help…"

"_I'm going to call the school and get someone to come help you._" Blaine closed his eyes as the rushing noise started up in his ears. It was about to get bad.

"I love you, Kurt…"

"_You're not leaving me yet, Blaine_." Before he could respond, Blaine knew that the worst part of the seizure had started. Blaine could see Kurt sitting in a hospital waiting room, speaking to Dr. Lowery with little Rylie in his arms. All Blaine could think about was the fact that Rylie looked so beautiful as she tried in a child-like way to comfort Kurt, who started crying. Blaine wished that he could stop whatever kind of pain Kurt was going through in that vision, but he knew that he was probably the one causing that pain.

* * *

><p>Kurt paced back and forth in the hospital waiting room, occasionally checking his phone because he was texting back and forth with the nanny to make sure that she could stay with Rylie until someone got home. He was torn between his husband and their daughter, because both of them needed him at the moment.<p>

"Kurt…" He looked up as Dr. Lowery walked into the room, shaking his head. "He's okay for the moment. I'm going to up his medication again…"

"But it's only been a few weeks since the last time you increased the dose," Kurt replied.

"It's had time to kick in at the higher dose… obviously I didn't kick it up enough. These seizures are far more dangerous than any of the side effects he might face. But you should know… if this doesn't work, we may have to look into other options besides medication. Potentially even surgery…" Kurt sighed and nodded, wondering how exactly he was going to convince Blaine to go through with something like that if it came down to it.

"Thanks, Dr. Lowery. When can I take him home?"

"I'll get the paperwork started. Running more tests would be pointless given the current situation… it's better if he just goes home to rest right now." Kurt nodded and followed the man back through the double doors and past the curtain that surrounded Blaine's bed. The man was stretched out with his eyes closed and one arm draped over them.

Kurt immediately walked up to the bed and pressed a kiss against Blaine's forehead. He smiled as the man's arm moved and his eyes fluttered open. "Hey… thank you."

"Thank you for calling me. How are you feeling?" Kurt asked.

"Just tired, like always." Kurt pushed the curls back out of Blaine's face with a sigh. "I can go home today, right? They aren't going to make me stay overnight?"

"No… Dr. Lowery just wants to up your meds again…"

"He does seem to like to do that."

"And he said we might have to think about the possibility of something else in the future…"

"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Blaine asked. Kurt smiled softly and sighed. "Kurt… we'll talk about it later, okay?" Kurt nodded in response to Blaine's question.

"Okay. Just get some rest while we wait for the paperwork so you can go home."

"I'd rest easier if I you were lying next to me," Blaine replied. Kurt nodded and smiled as Blaine made room for him. Kurt climbed into the bed next to his husband, wrapping their arms around each other. He watched as the man dozed on and off for a few minutes, until the nurse came in with Blaine's discharge paperwork.

The two men were walking in their front door within an hour, more than a little surprised that the house was completely silent. "Blaine, why don't you go lay down on the bed in the guest room? That way Rylie won't disturb you when she wakes up during the night," Kurt suggested.

"You shouldn't have to take care of her all by yourself, Kurt…"

"You aren't any good to me if you're exhausted. And you're going to be too tired to be any help tonight. Just go up there and get some rest, and you can help me when you aren't so exhausted," Kurt replied, leaning in and planting a kiss against Blaine's lips. He smiled as the man finally nodded and started to do what he was supposed to do, just as the nanny walked into the living room with Rylie in her arms.

"I wasn't expecting you guys home so soon… is everything okay?"

"It's fine, Emma. How was our sweet girl?" Kurt smiled as Blaine took the baby from her nanny, more than a little impressed with how cute his husband looked holding their daughter.

"She was an angel… I don't know that I've ever had such a good first day before," Emma replied.

"That's my girl," Blaine commented. Kurt smiled as the man kissed the little girl and passed her off to him. "I'm going to go lay down for a little while. You'll be okay with her for a little while by yourself, right?"

"I'll be fine, Blaine. Go get some rest," Kurt replied, gently bouncing Rylie as the little girl started to whimper at being passed around too much while she was still asleep. He watched as the man made his way up the stairs, sighing as soon as he was out of sight.

"Is everything _really_ okay, Mr. Hummel?"

"Emma… call me Kurt. Blaine has epilepsy – he's had seizures since he was a baby, but usually it's just one every couple of years. This is his second seizure in a month. I'm just a little worried about him…" Kurt leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against the top of Rylie's head. "I just don't want our daughter to have to grow up without having two parents."

"Is it that bad?" Emma asked.

"It could be if the seizures don't stop."


	13. Downward Slope

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: So I may have just changed the direction I'm taking this story slightly… we'll see. It shouldn't be too many more chapters now.**

Kurt was exhausted. They had been in and out of the hospital for months; Blaine hadn't been able to go back to work, and it seemed like everything was slowly falling apart. If it hadn't been for the disability checks that had started coming, Kurt wasn't sure how they would survive. Between his husband being sick and having a baby girl who was barely seven months old, a lot of days it was all Kurt could do to get himself out of bed to keep things going because he was just so exhausted. But he did what he had to do.

"You should be in bed." Kurt didn't even look up from the paperwork he was doing as he told his husband what to do.

"It wouldn't make a difference if I did stay in bed, and you know it. I don't want to spend my last year in bed, Kurt. I want to _live_." Kurt looked up as Blaine walked over and sat down on an empty space on top of the desk.

"I know. But is it wrong of me to want to keep you for as long as possible, Blaine?" Kurt asked. He reached out and put a hand on Blaine's knee. "I wish there was some way I could stop time… that I could keep you here forever. I would even gladly keep Rylie as an infant forever if it just meant that you could stay with us."

"I don't want to leave you. I don't want any of this. I would much rather stay with the two of you forever," Blaine replied. Kurt sighed as the man leaned down and pressed a kiss against his lips. "Can we please do something that we haven't done since Rylie was born?" Kurt raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. "I know it's been seven months, but do I really have to spell it out for you?"

"Blaine… are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Let's see… you're incredibly stressed out. Rylie is asleep, and she's actually started napping for a decent amount of time. And do I need to mention again that we haven't had sex in seven months?" Kurt smiled as Blaine pressed another kiss against his lips. "Please. I miss you."

"Blaine, I have to finish this paperwork… it can't wait. But tonight, after Rylie is in bed, we'll have some fun. I promise." Kurt pressed another kiss against Blaine's lips, before he gently pushed his husband off the desk and to his feet. "I've got to get back to this. I'll come eat lunch with you in a little while, after I've gotten all of this taken care of."

"I guess I can figure out something to do until then… maybe I'll cook something for lunch so we don't have to eat sandwiches."

"Just be careful. Call me if you need help with anything," Kurt replied, going back to his paperwork.

"I think I can handle making lunch."

Kurt glanced at his watch an hour later, surprised that he hadn't heard anything from either Blaine or Rylie. Almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind, Kurt heard the shrill beeping of the fire alarm immediately followed by Rylie's cries. He ran into the kitchen, turning off the oven and grabbing the fire extinguisher from its place underneath the kitchen sink and putting out the fire.

"Blaine? Blaine, where are you?" he called. He put down the fire extinguisher and hurried down the hall to Rylie's room, picking the baby up from her crib and walking back over towards the kitchen. "Blaine?" Kurt was starting to get worried when he heard a moan coming from the living room.

"Oh God…" Kurt hurried over towards the noise, putting Rylie down a couple of feet away from Blaine so that he could keep an eye on her while he took care of his husband. It only took him a moment to notice the red stain that was starting to form on the carpet. "Kurt… it hurts…"

"I know, honey…" Kurt replied. He looked around trying to find something to stop the bleeding. He grabbed a throw from the couch and balled it up, gently lifting Blaine's head and pressing the material against the cut. "Just lay still… I'm going to get some help and get someone over here to watch Rylie."

"Don't leave me, Kurt…"

"I'm just going to get the phone. I'll be right back…" Kurt hurried back into his office and grabbed his cell phone, dialing as he ran back into the living room.

* * *

><p>Kurt cradled Rylie against his chest as he waited for someone to come give him information about Blaine.<p>

"I'm sorry, Kurt… I got here as quickly as I could…" Kurt smiled up at Emma as she sat down next to him, reaching out for the baby. "Is he okay?"

"I don't know yet… why don't you just take Rylie back to the house. I don't want her exposed to too many germs," Kurt replied, kissing the little girl's forehead before handing her over to the babysitter.

"That's probably a good idea."

"And stay out of the living room… the carpet's going to have to be cleaned, and I doubt you want to see that. And I don't want Rylie around that."

"Kurt?" He looked up as Dr. Lowery came out to talk to him. "He's going to be okay. He has a concussion, so we're going to keep him overnight for observation. But I think it's time we seriously considered trying something other than medication to stop his seizures."

"You'll have to talk to Blaine about that. It's his decision… it's his life."

"He's said before that he doesn't want to have surgery. But we're out of other options here, Kurt… without surgery, he's going to keep having seizures that are going to get more and more intense, and eventually we're not going to be able to stop his seizures with medication." Kurt nodded, sighing.

"When can I go see him?"

"He's sleeping at the moment, but I'll take you in there," Dr. Lowery replied. Kurt kissed Rylie's head one more time before sending Emma and the baby off home and following the doctor back into an exam area. "If anyone says anything to you, just let them know that you have my permission to be back here."

"Thank you, Dr. Lowery. For everything." Kurt walked over to the bed, leaning over and pressing a soft kiss against Blaine's forehead. For the first time since Blaine had told him that he was going to die, Kurt felt the tears starting to fall. Blaine's vision was going to come true; Kurt was going to lose the love of his life.

"Why are you crying?" Kurt looked up at the whispered voice. "Don't cry, Kurt."

"I don't want to lose you… I don't think I can deal with that," Kurt replied, grabbing Blaine's hand and pressing a kiss against the back of it. "I've been trying to not think about it… to pretend that this isn't tearing me up inside. But you're going to leave me soon. I'm not ready to lose you."

"Kurt…" Blaine began.

"Shhh… I know, there's nothing you can do. But there has to be some way to change things. We all make choices, Blaine. That has to count for something…"

"I don't want to leave you, either."

"We have to try everything… take every chance. I can't lose you like this…"


	14. Hope For The Best

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: Alright, I know this is chapter may seem kind of sad. But the next chapter might be the last… it seems as though a lot of my stories are wrapping themselves up around the same time. Enjoy!**

Even after so many years, the waiting was the hardest part for Kurt. But this time was different; this wasn't the emergency waiting room, and Kurt knew _exactly_ what was going on behind the closed doors.

"Thanks for coming today, Rachel. I don't think I could do this alone…" Kurt smiled as Rachel squeezed his hand.

"Of course, Kurt. I figured that you would need someone to keep you from driving yourself crazy with worry. And with Finn out of town, I'm the closest thing you have to family around here."

"Even if you are completely insane, you're still the best sister-in-law I could have ever asked for," Kurt replied.

"Kurt?" Both of the former McKinley students looked up at Dr. Lowery, who smiled at them.

"I'm going to go get some coffee. Kurt – grande nonfat mocha?"

"Thanks, Rachel." Kurt turned back towards the doctor and sighed. "How is he?"

"He's resting. He did really well… it'll take some time for us to know for sure how well this is going to work. But things look good so far," the doctor replied. Kurt smiled, sighing.

"Thank you. For everything."

"I'll send one of the nurses out to get you when they have him settled in back in the recovery room. Just don't expect him to be awake much for the next couple of days… even though things went well, it was still pretty rough physically for Blaine." Kurt nodded.

"I know. All that matters is that he's okay."

"I need to go check on some other patients. I'll see the two of you later this afternoon… probably after they move him to the ICU."

"Thanks, Dr. Lowery." Kurt watched as the doctor left the room, and then picked up one of the magazines Rachel had brought and started flipping through it until Rachel came back and sat down next to him with their coffee.

"Good news, I hope?"

"Dr. Lowery said things look good. It's going to be a little while before we know for sure whether or not it worked, though." Kurt took the coffee from Rachel as he spoke, putting the magazine back down.

"So how long do you think it will be?"

"They won't turn the device on until he's had some time to heal, so he'll still need to be on high doses of anticonvulsants and I'll still have to keep an eye on him for a while…"

"Still, it has to be at least a little bit of a relief to know that this might be over soon," Rachel replied.

"I'm not holding out for a cure, Rachel… I just want him to have a few more years. I want more time with my husband…" Kurt glanced down as Rachel squeezed his hand again.

"I didn't realize it was that bad…"

"I wish this hadn't happened. I wish that it had been over after everything that we went through in high school with all of this. But it has to keep coming back. I'm afraid that even if this does work, in a few years we'll just be back in the same position we're in right now." Kurt felt the tears stinging his eyes as he took a sip of his mocha.

"I'm sure everything is going to work out just fine. Blaine's tough… you know that. He's been through hell more than once, and he's survived every time."

"That kind of good luck can't last forever, Rachel. And I'm worried that it might happen before Rylie is even old enough to remember him. I don't want that for our little girl… I want her to grow up with two parents," Kurt replied.

"She's always going to have plenty of people who love her, Kurt. She has all of your family, and Blaine's dad, and her birth mom. And that's not to mention all of the honorary aunts and uncles she has from Glee…" Kurt nodded.

"You're right, Rachel. I just… I'm not ready to let go. And Rylie shouldn't have to let go. Not as a baby."

"She'll be fine no matter what happens, Kurt. I know you two, Kurt… you already have a plan for what will happen to Rylie if something happens to the two of you, don't you?"

"Of course… and a backup plan."

"That's the best thing you can do for her… you prepared for the worst. Now you just have to hope for the best." Kurt smiled and squeezed Rachel's hand.

"Thank you, Rachel." Kurt glanced up as a nurse walked into the waiting room and started to approach them. "I think this is my cue."

"I'll watch your coffee. Feel free to take your time… I don't have anything to do before rehearsal tomorrow, and Finn's taking a cab when he gets in later. And I can get Rylie…"

"Rachel, chill. It's all taken care of." Kurt got up and followed the nurse back through a set of double doors that led into the recovery room. He bit his lip and ducked through the curtains that surrounded Blaine's bed.

For once, Blaine's appearance didn't shock Kurt at all. The man had gotten Emma to shave his head while Kurt was at work because he hadn't wanted to have a random bald spot after the surgery. Kurt hadn't been very happy, but now that he saw Blaine lying in the hospital bed with a bandage around his head, he was sort of glad that the man had decided to do that. It was a little less of a shock for him that Blaine's curls were gone.

"He's still in and out… don't expect what he says to make any sense for a little while. Someone will be here to take him to the ICU in a little while."

"Thank you," Kurt replied, smiling at the woman as he walked over to the bed and took Blaine's hand. Kurt didn't expect the man to stir; the drugs in Blaine's system would keep him asleep for a long time even though the surgery was over. He leaned over and pressed a kiss against his husband's cheek. "I love you, Blaine," he whispered. Kurt squeezed Blaine's hand, letting his head rest on the pillow next to Blaine's. He stayed that way for a while, just watching Blaine sleep.

"The snake's a horcrux…" Kurt raised an eyebrow a the sound of Blaine's voice, smiling slightly at the reference the man was making.

"Yes, Blaine… Nagini is a horcrux."

"Don't kill Harry…" Blaine mumbled.

"Harry's fine, Blaine… it's all over, and Harry survived the battle," Kurt replied. He felt kind of silly reassuring his husband about a fictional character. But as heavily drugged as he was, Kurt felt pretty sure that whatever was going on made perfect sense to Blaine.

"He's right through here." Kurt looked up as a nurse pushed back the curtain "They're here to take him to the ICU on the second floor. Just go out to the elevator, and the waiting room will be the last room on the left. Someone will come out when we've got him settled in."

Kurt squeezed Blaine's hand one last time and pressed another kiss against the man's cheek. "I'll see you soon."


	15. Mistaken

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

**A/n: Feel free to kill me. Or love me forever. Because this is the last chapter. And there is a death, but I won't tell you who dies… you have to read and find out for yourself.**

Kurt let his hand idly play with Blaine's curls, smiling down at the man. "I'm glad your curls finally decided to grow back. It took them long enough… I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to have enough hair to cover up that scar."

"Me too. How much longer do you think we have before baby girl wakes up from her nap?" Blaine asked. Both men looked up as they heard the familiar sound of Rylie whimpering from the other room. "Nevermind… she just answered my question. I've got her."

Kurt sighed and got out of bed as well, following his husband across the hall to Rylie's room. He smiled as he saw Blaine pick up the little girl. "How's my baby girl?" the curly-haired man asked, lifting her above his head.

"Dada! Dada!" Kurt walked over and put an arm around Blaine's waist, wrapping the other around Rylie. "Ryrie big girl… no baby."

"Rylie's right, B… she isn't our little baby anymore. She's almost two now." Kurt shot a meaningful look at Blaine. "You know what that means."

"I know exactly what it means. But we aren't out of the woods yet," Blaine replied. Kurt nodded.

"I know. But you haven't had a generalized seizure since they turned the device on… and you've barely had any focal seizures. I doubt your seizures are going to be the problem."

"We'll see. But for now, I think someone needs a clean diaper." Kurt smiled as his husband took the little girl over to the changing table, while Kurt hurried down the hall as he heard the phone ringing.

"Hello?" Kurt asked.

"_Kurt… sweetie, it's Carole_." Kurt could hear the sadness in his step-mother's voice.

"Carole, what's wrong? Is Dad okay?"

"_He had another heart attack, Kurt… he's still alive, but the doctors don't know if he's going to make it much longer._" Kurt felt his knees starting to give out, and he sat down on the couch. "_You should come home, sweetie. It's really not looking good._"

"I'll head out there as soon as I can get a flight. Tell… tell Dad to hang on…"

"_Just hurry, Kurt._" Kurt sat there, staring at the phone's screen for a moment before he stood up and hurried back into the bedroom, pulling out a suitcase and starting to fill it with whatever clothing he could think of.

"Kurt? What are you doing?"

"I have to go to Ohio… I have to go see my dad…" Kurt said, rushing through packing everything. He ignored Blaine as the man sat Rylie down on the floor with her teddy bear and grabbed the phone.

"I'll call for plane tickets. Calm down. And slow down with the packing so that you don't forget something important, like your underwear. Worry about packing your clothes, and I'll take care of everything else." Kurt sighed and smiled as Blaine kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you." Kurt looked down at the mess he'd made of his suitcase and started folding things properly, thankful that it looked as though he'd subconsciously put together a few outfits to wear. He went back into his closet, choosing outfits a bit more carefully and grabbing suits for both himself and Blaine. He ended up grabbing another suitcase out of the closet and started packing clothes for Blaine as well.

"Dada busy?" Kurt glanced down as Rylie spoke. "Want take bear?" Kurt smiled at the little girl as she held out her teddy bear.

"We'll pack the teddy bear in your bag, Rylie. We're going to go see Nana and Papa Burt…"

"Why?"

"Because Papa Burt's not feeling so well, baby. We're going to go visit him and make him feel better." Kurt hurried into the bathroom, grabbing toiletries for both of them and tucking them into their respective suitcases.

"Delta could fit is in on their next flight to Cleveland… it leaves in three hours," Blaine replied, coming back into the bedroom. "You already packed for me?"

"We need to pack Rylie's clothes and some toys. And we'll have to eat at the airport. Oh God, and your medication…"

"Why don't you go get Rylie's clothes and put them in my suitcase. I'll get my meds and the third carry-on with Rylie's toys and the other things we'll need." Kurt nodded and did as he was told. He knew that it was going to be a long day.

LINE

Kurt sighed as he worked on his tie, trying to make it work. He was getting frustrated; the tie just didn't seem to want to work with him. "Let me help you with that, sweetie…" Kurt turned around as he heard Carole's voice coming up behind him. He couldn't stop the tears as she carefully adjusted the silk until it formed a perfect knot. "There you go."

"Thank you, Carole. For everything."

"Are you okay?" Kurt nodded, doing his best to stop the tears from sliding down his face.

"It's harder when you fully understand what's going on. And when you realize that your child is never going to really know her grandfather…" Kurt began. He closed his eyes and sighed. "How are you? You were his wife…"

"I'm sad, of course. But your father and I had a good life together… I was very happy with Burt. Your father was a good man." Kurt wrapped his arms around Carole, pulling her into a hug.

"Thank you, Carole."

"I'm going to go get my little grandbaby dressed for the funeral."

"I should check on Blaine. He had a seizure this morning from all of the stress… I think I'm just going to tell him to stay home and get some rest, before he ends up having more," Kurt replied.

"I thought the seizures stopped after that last surgery…"

"The generalized seizures stopped. He still has some focal seizures… the device just stops them before they get serious. I'm just worried that if he gets too stressed out from everything that's going on, it might not work. I've been living in fear of more seizures…"

"You can't let fear rule your decisions, Kurt. You two can't really be happy if you're always waiting for the other foot to drop. You both need to live and be together while you have the chance. It'll end long before you want it to, Kurt… don't let yourselves regret this time. Make every minute that you have count. Because once it's gone you'll never get it back." Kurt nodded as Carole pressed a kiss on his forehead. "Go check on Blaine. I'll take care of Rylie."

Kurt walked down the hall to his old bedroom, which he and Blaine were sharing. Rylie had spent the night with them, but they'd put her down for her nap in the room Finn and Rachel were sharing so that she wouldn't disturb Blaine. Kurt sat down on the edge of the bed, reaching out and pushing Blaine's curls out of his face. The man didn't wake up immediately, and Kurt leaned over and pressed a kiss against his lips.

"Hey… is it time to get up?" Blaine asked.

"How are you feeling?" Kurt replied. He watched as Blaine shrugged, his eyes closing of their own accord again. "If you're too tired, you can stay here, get some more rest."

"You're wearing the suit." Kurt raised an eyebrow, confused. "The vision… the one from right after Rylie was born. That's what you were wearing. And you were crying, and I wasn't there…"

"Because you were here, resting," Kurt replied. He smiled. "So is this your way of saying that you misinterpreted one of your visions? That you were wrong?"

"I think this means a lot of things."


End file.
